Insect-sized innovation

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the world’s smallest wireless flying robot! Like a bumblebee flitting from flower to flower, a new insect-inspired robot created by Berkeley engineers can hover, change trajectory and even hit small targets. Less than 1 centimeter in diameter and weighing only 21 milligrams, the propeller-shaped device is powered by two barely visible magnets. The researchers, led by mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin, achieve lift off and precisely control the robot’s flight path by applying an external magnetic field.