Flying bee robot gets more wings and flies wirelessly on solar energy

Researchers at Harvard University have given their existing flying ‘bee robot’ two extra wings and made some other improvements. This means that RoboBee can now fly without a wire for the energy supply, based on solar cells.

A number of adjustments have been made to allow the robot insect to fly without a wire, including the addition of two extra wings. The robot has wings in an x-shape, which is why the makers have given it the name RoboBee X-Wing. In addition to the extra wings, less visible adjustments have been made to the actuators and the transmission ratio has been improved. All this makes the fake insect more efficient and gives it 38 percent more lift; that’s more than the robot needs. According to one of the researchers, this made it possible to integrate all the necessary technology on board, so that no external energy source is needed anymore.

According to the researchers, the solar cells are the smallest commercially available solar cells; they weigh 10mg each and generate 0.76 milliwatts per milligram of power, provided full-intensity sunlight hits the cells. In total, the six solar cells generate approximately 120 milliwatts of power. The small solar panels are placed 3cm above the wings to avoid interference. Under the wings is a panel with electronics that amplify the signal from the solar cells; the higher voltage is needed for the actuators. RoboBee X-wing weighs only 259 milligrams in total and has a ‘wingspan’ of 3.5cm

However, the researchers are far from sitting back. To make the robot fly, a light source is needed with the intensity of three times our sun. In the lab, the researchers managed to make the X-Wing fly for only half a second by shining lamps on the solar cells, Wired writes. In order to make the insect airworthy, the solar cells and actuators need to be further improved and an integrated battery can offer a solution. Moreover, there is now no brain, so that the robot would now fly around aimlessly. There should also be compensation for the wind. The researchers believe that a wireless RoboBee could eventually be used for environmental research, reconnaissance and search and rescue missions, among other things.

RoboBee X-Wing is in fact a further development of a first prototype from 2008, which has been modified several times over the years. In 2015, for example, this led to a version of the bee robot that can fly and swim, which was made possible by a modified flapping technique of the wings. In 2017, this design was further improved by giving RoboBee the ability to take off from the water after swimming.

The researchers have published a paper on RoboBee X-Wing in the scientific journal Nature, entitled Untethered flight of an insect-sized flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle.