Robo-fly steadies flight with onboard sensor

A light sensor that looks like a pyramid keeps this robotic fly from tumbling out of the sky. It is the first time an onboard sensor has kept a fly-sized robot stable during flight.

Courtesy of Sawyer Fuller

By Ashley Yeager

June 18, 2014 at 11:32 am

A fly-sized flying robot doesn’t crash and burn thanks to an onboard light sensor inspired by those of live flies and honeybees.

These insects have ocelli — three light sensors that are distinct from their compound eyes — that could help stabilize their upward flight by sensing the horizon or sun. When an ocelli-inspired sensor was strapped aboard a fly-sized robot, the sensor kept the robot steady during a 0.3-second climb, researchers report June 18 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

The study appears to be the first to scale down an onboard sensor to fit on a fly-sized robot and steady its flight. The results also support a hypothesis for how ocelli work to stabilize the flight of honeybees and possibly other living insects, the scientists say.