Beautiful work. Although, I'd recommend just reading the press release[1]. It is... | Hacker News

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alt_ on Feb 18, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: Tiny Robotic Bee Assembles Itself Like Pop-Up Book

Beautiful work. Although, I'd recommend just reading the press release[1]. It is more in depth and better explains the accuracy and reliability they can achieve.

I especially love seeing the bee in operation. Does anyone know by what mechanism the motion is generated?

Edit: My best guess is piezoelectric actuators[2].

[1] http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news-events/press-releases/pop-u...

[2] http://micro.seas.harvard.edu/papers/Karpelson_ICRA09.pdf

glhaynes on Feb 18, 2012 [–]

At about 0:58 in the video linked from the Wired article, the narrator says "and two piezoelectric inserts for actuation."

alt_ on Feb 18, 2012 | [–]

Ah, yes. Thanks. I must have glossed over that when watching it.

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