DelFly2 and DelFly micro

posted Jul 13th 2010 7:00am by
filed under: robots hacks

The video you see above is the on board footage of the DelFly2 autonomous ornithopoter robot. Weighing 16 grams, it carries a small camera and can provide a live feed. If you’re amazed at the tiny size and weight of the DelFly2, check out the DelFly micro, video after the break, that weighs 3 grams. Remember when we thought 17 grams was small for an ornithopter?

All processing for the DelFly2 is done at a base station and transmitted to the flying bot to keep the weight down. The team also had to create their own brushless motor that runs at 60% efficiency and weighs only 1.6 grams. The 130mAh battery can sustain 15 minutes of horizontal flight or 8 minutes of hovering.

[via BotJunkie]

tagged: , , ,


15 Responses to DelFly2 and DelFly micro

  • prime says:
    July 13, 2010 at 7:25 am

    I want one.
    It’d completely freak my cockatiel out.

    Reply Report comment
  • andrew says:
    July 13, 2010 at 7:27 am

    How cute! Skynet’s first view of the world it will soon come to dominate.

    Reply Report comment
  • inhuman tsar says:
    July 13, 2010 at 7:30 am

    spell check is your friend

    Reply Report comment
  • Grazz256 says:
    July 13, 2010 at 8:36 am

    Is this really “autonomous” is all of the processing is done at the base station?
    If it loses comms what does it do?

    Reply Report comment
  • fartface says:
    July 13, 2010 at 8:40 am

    Ok this one rocks… Not a hack, but a very cool project from scratch.. Time to dust off my old RC gear…

    Reply Report comment
  • dan says:
    July 13, 2010 at 10:50 am

    I want one. If it’s that small, it can’t be hard to build, right? ;)

    Reply Report comment
  • andrew says:
    July 13, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    @Grazz,

    To me, autonomous mean without realtime control by a human. But, that’s just me.

    Reply Report comment
  • zool says:
    July 13, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    pretty amazing

    Reply Report comment
  • Matt Downer says:
    July 13, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    Pretty amazing. I bet this will be in use for spying…

    Reply Report comment
  • Grazz256 says:
    July 13, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    @andrew

    I think of it more as working by itself without outside influence.

    Don’t get me wrong tho, 16/3 grams with real time video is most definitely amazing!

    Reply Report comment
  • Drone says:
    July 13, 2010 at 9:44 pm

    Nice orinthopters but; the only thing worse than a vuvuzela is… accordion music.

    Reply Report comment
  • Ian says:
    July 14, 2010 at 2:13 am

    That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.

    Reply Report comment
  • ss says:
    July 14, 2010 at 7:06 am

    According to their website, the micro’s battery has a capacity of 30mAh, not 130mAh.

    Reply Report comment
  • Simonious says:
    July 17, 2010 at 10:08 am

    I keep hoping to see one of these running on wireless power.

    Reply Report comment
  • Simonious says:
    July 17, 2010 at 10:09 am

    Preferably harvested from ambient WiFi signals, though I suspect the power density just wouldn’t be worth the weight in additional hardware on such a small device.

    Reply Report comment

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