Robotic insect: World's smallest flying robot takes off

Scientists in the US have created a robot the size of a fly that is able to perform the agile manoeuvres of the ubiquitous insects.

This "robo-fly", built from carbon fibre, weighs a fraction of a gram and has super-fast electronic "muscles" to power its wings.

Its Harvard University developers say tiny robots like theirs may eventually be used in rescue operations.

It could, for example, navigate through tiny spaces in collapsed buildings.

The development is reported in the journal Science.



Tethered flight: It will take "a few more years" before the robo-flies will be able to carry a power source
Lead researcher Kevin Ma from Harvard University says his team has made the world's smallest flying robot.

It also has the fly-like agility that allows the insects to evade even the swiftest of human efforts to swat them.

This comes largely from very precise wing movements

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Now THAT'S cool!

Now what better to spy on you than a tiny fly. No one would ever think that is what it is.

you got something to hide spicee