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wired.com - 7/3/2009

Video: Pentagon’s Robo-Hummingbird Flies Like the Real Thing

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Military-backed researchers have built a tiny drone that looks and flies like a hummingbird, flapping its little robotic wings to stay in the air. So far, the mock bird, built for Pentagon mad-science division Darpa, has only stayed aloft for 20 seconds at a time. But that short flight was ...

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Hummingbot UAV hovering in slow motion
CrunchGear — ... latest fiend to come out of DARPA human-extinction research money is this Nano Air Vehicle, which flies like a hummingbird, at least for the few seconds it’s managing to stay up at this stage of research. The idea, of course, is to create something like the hunter-seeker from Dune, floating silently in through the air vent and executing you while you sleep. Do not fear… fear is the mind-killer… [via Wired Danger Room]

DARPA contractor shows off tiny robo-hummingbird UAV
Engadget — ... to show off all the progress it has made. As you can see in the video after the break, the bot is able to fly about and hover in place by mimicking the wing movement of a real hummingbird and, of course, be controlled completely untethered. What's more, the firm says that the final version will actually look like a real hummingbird as well, and be able to be controlled from up to a kilometer away -- even inside buildings, where a hummingbird won't look at all out of place. [Via Danger Room] ...

Humming bird robot from pentagon flies like the real one
Newlaunches.com — ... to stay in air like the real birds. The mock bird has only stayed aloft for 20 seconds at a time. But it has shown its capability as a spy in this short spick of time. AeroVironment doesn’t just want the little drone to fly like a bird but also look like one. So it has been given by DARPA another $2.1 million to build a humming bot version 2.0. So don’t get so excited when you see a small tiny animal or a bird watching and just looking at you! It could be a drone spying on you! [ Wired ] ...

Pentagon's Robot Hummingbird Christened "Nano Air Vehicle" [Robots]
Gizmodo — ... Program manager Todd Hylton is aiming for "an approximately 10-gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5-meter-per-second wind gusts." Right now, though, the teeny robobird can only fly for about 20 seconds at a time. But with some hard work, some day we will produce a robotic hummingbird that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. Wait, is fear the right word? [Wired] ...