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MIT scientists – comprising Suhan Kim, Yi-Hsuan Hsiao, YuFan Chen, Jie Mao, and YuFeng Chen – have developed robotic fireflies that can help search-and-rescue missions through their flashing lights and motion-tracking feature. The MIT team took their design cues from nature and fascination for the glimmering bugs, and built electroluminescent, soft-artificial muscles for flying, insect-scale robots such as these lightning bugs. The muscles the scientists added on the robotic bugs’ wings emit colored light during flight, and this electroluminescence also allows robots to communicate with each other.
The team believes that if these lightning bugs were sent on a search-and-rescue mission into a collapsed building, a robot that finds survivors could use lights to signal others and call for help. The flying robots weigh barely more than a paperclip, which at first was seen as a concern since that meant they could not carry sensors. Researchers then must track them using bulky infrared cameras that do not work well outdoors. Now, they have shown that they can track the robots precisely using the light they emit and just three smartphone cameras.
For their wings, the scientists previously devised a fabrication technique to build artificial muscles that flap the wings of the robots, which are made of elastomer, such as rubber, and carbon nanotube electrode in a stack. They rolled it into a squishy cylinder to complete the process. When a voltage is applied to that cylinder, the electrodes squeeze the elastomer, and the mechanical strain flaps the wing. As for the glowing effect, the team incorporated electroluminescent zinc sulfate particles into the elastomer but not without challenges hindering their progress.
The team believes that if these lightning bugs were sent on a search-and-rescue mission into a collapsed building, a robot that finds survivors could use lights to signal others and call for help. The flying robots weigh barely more than a paperclip, which at first was seen as a concern since that meant they could not carry sensors. Researchers then must track them using bulky infrared cameras that do not work well outdoors. Now, they have shown that they can track the robots precisely using the light they emit and just three smartphone cameras.
For their wings, the scientists previously devised a fabrication technique to build artificial muscles that flap the wings of the robots, which are made of elastomer, such as rubber, and carbon nanotube electrode in a stack. They rolled it into a squishy cylinder to complete the process. When a voltage is applied to that cylinder, the electrodes squeeze the elastomer, and the mechanical strain flaps the wing. As for the glowing effect, the team incorporated electroluminescent zinc sulfate particles into the elastomer but not without challenges hindering their progress.
WATCH: MIT scientists create robot fireflies that can help search-and-rescue missions
MIT scientists have created robotic fireflies that can help search-and-rescue missions using flashing lights and motion-tracking features.
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