Watch this robot fly like a real insect

The DelFly is a super light, super agile robot that flies like a real insect. By using a quad-wing flapping system, this odd little bot can flit, hover, and land like a fruit fly.

Part of a research project at the Delft University of Technology, this is the latest version of the DelFly and it can now perform high speed maneuvers including rapid turns.

From the release:

The so far unmatched combination of performances makes the lightweight (and thus inherently safe) natural-looking robot ready for many real-world tasks. At the same time, the high agility, combined with the programmability of the robot, opens up a new way of studying insect flight dynamics and control during high agility maneuvers, such as rapid banked turns observed in fruit-flies when evading predators.

The robot flies by rolling in the air and it has four wings to control three axes of flight. It flies left and right by changing the way each wing flaps.

The researchers, Matěj Karásek, Florian T. Muijres, Christophe De Wagter, Bart D.W. Remes, and Guido C.H.E. de Croon, wrote about the DelFly in an article for Science called “A tailless aerial robotic flapper reveals that flies use torque coupling in rapid banked turns.”