24 July 2008
Micro air vehicle imitates dragonflies
The Technical University of Delft has made a successful test flight of DelFly, its micro air vehicle. The device, which weighs 3g and has a 10cm wingspan, features flapping wings is said to be very similar to a dragonfly.
DelFly has a micro camera, with software developed by the university allowing objects to be recognised independently. It can be manoevred using a joystick, allowing DelFly to be operated from a pc.
It is the latest stage in the development of a range of similar devices. The original design, DelFly I, weighed 23g and had a wingspan of 50cm. On the drawing board is DelFly NaNo, which will have a 5cm wingspan and weigh just 1g. The developers also intend for DelFly NaNo to fly independently using image recognition software.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.tudelft.nl
Companies
Technical University of Delft
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