Watch the world’s tiniest solar-powered robot take flight

When disaster strikes in a remote location—an oil spill, for example—scientists and officials need eyes in the skies to monitor conditions from afar. Drones can swoop in to help, but short battery lives can limit their usefulness. Enter ColoumbFly, the world’s lightest and smallest solar-powered flying robot. Described today in Nature, researchers hope its design could inspire a new generation of robotic fliers that can link Wi-Fi networks, send photos, and accomplish other remote-monitoring tasks for long periods of time.

CoulombFly, designed by a team at Beihang University, is palm size and weighs just a little more than 4 grams. Unlike traditional tiny flying machines that use an electrified magnet to power their rotors, the CoulombFly’s motor is powered by the so-called Coulomb force—the force between electrically charged particles at rest. Here, a solar cell generates electricity and creates an electric field between oppositely charged plates aligned in a circle. The opposing charges, like repelling magnets, generate enough force to turn the blades of a rotor. That creates enough torque to propel the robot off the ground.

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Source: Science

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