- Engineer's Espresso
- Posts
- miniature flying robot?
miniature flying robot?
what would you do with it?
Happy Tuesday, folks!
So…we hit some deliverability issues last week so it's likely that edition is in your spam folder.
If you love this newsletter and want to keep receiving it, reply with “i want this week in engineering weekly,” too lazy to type it? click this button and hit send hehe.
Want to get featured in the next edition?
(you know how it works 😉)
UC Berkeley built a flying robot that's 9.4mm across - smaller than a penny.
Weighs 21 milligrams. Flies. Hovers. Changes direction. Survives crashes.
In 76.5% of crash tests, it stays airborne instead of dropping like a rock.
And the power hack is pretty intelligent tbh. No batteries. No complex electronics.
Instead, they use two tiny permanent magnets. Put them in a specific magnetic field at 330 hertz, and the rotors spin fast enough to generate lift.
At this tiny scale, air ≠ air anymore.
It's more like thick syrup. Normal wing designs are completely useless.
The team had to rewrite the rules of aerodynamics. They managed a lift-to-drag ratio of 0.7 and a lift-to-power ratio of 0.072 n/w - for something this small, that's mind-blowing.
Staying upright is another nightmare at this scale.
Most robots would need complex sensors and control systems.
They added a balance ring that creates a gyroscopic effect - think of a spinning top that keeps itself vertical. No sensors. No active stabilization.
To give you perspective, the smallest flying insect is a parasitic wasp at 0.58mg with a 3mm wingspan.
The previous smallest flying robot was 28mm - three times larger than this.
They steer by creating magnetic field gradients. No onboard controls needed. Just pure, calculated manipulation of magnetic fields.
The potential is huge.
Imagine robots small enough to crawl through human bodies, inspect nuclear reactors, or go places nothing else can reach.
If you got your hands on this tiny flying robot, what would YOU do with it?
Go wild with imagination and reply (featuring the best ones as usual)
We’ve got a challenge for all you sharp-eyed engineers out there. Can you spot the 5 differences between the two images?
Image 1:
Image 2:
Reply with your guesses, and we’ll reveal the answers in the next newsletter!
Bonus:
The first reader to spot all the differences gets a special shoutout in the next edition!
Mechanical Engineer - Jobs via Dice
Apply now and finally explain to your relatives that ‘engineering’ isn’t just fixing the washing machine.PLC Controls Staff Engineer - Thermo Fisher Scientific
If you talk to machines more than humans, this one's basically a love letter to your skillset.Principal Geotechnical Engineer - Gannett Fleming
Time to get paid for judging soil — because dirt deserves expert opinions too.
Want to list your job with us?
Hit reply and we’ll get it to over 15k engineers : )
Reply