‘monolithic bee’ by students at the harvard microrobotics laboratory
students at the harvard microrobotics laboratory have developed a robotic bee known as ‘monolithic bee’ or ‘mobee’. the insect is printed from layers of carbon-fiber and plastic. the combination allows for joints which are sturdy but bendable. the bee folds up with one quick movement similar to a pop-up book, thus requiring no assembly. attached are titanium wings, which, when applied to an external power source, are able to move at 1 or 30 hertz.
this newly developed process of printing MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) can be applied to a large number of robotic devices, and is well suited to pass production.
an american coin shows the scale of the robot bee
the flapping of the wings
detail of folding mechanism
harvard monolithic bee (mobee)
via boingboing
