On the pages of our website one can find a lot of material devoted to tiny and light flying robots, the living prototypes of which design are insects of different species. With few exceptions, all such robots fly using energy supplied through the thinnest electrical wires, which significantly limits the possibility of practical use of such devices. This disadvantage is completely deprived of the new robot, which looks almost the same as its predecessors. The only and most important exception is that the tiny flying machine gets the energy it needs by using wireless radio-frequency technology.
Created by Toyota’s Central R&D Lab, the flying robot has six wings powered by a single piezoelectric actuator, an electronic unit and a 5 GHz dipole antenna that turns radio wave energy into electricity. This antenna and the rest of the electronics provide a remarkable power-to-weight ratio of 4,900 W*kg^-1.
The key problem faced by Japanese researchers, and faced by other developers of such miniaturized equipment, is the heating of some components, caused by the inevitable loss of energy during its conversion. To overcome this problem, the Japanese researchers optimized the robot’s electronic circuitry and placed the main heat-generating components as far away from each other as possible, allowing the heat to be dissipated as efficiently as possible into the environment.
“Our main achievement is the development of a circuit whose components weigh less than one gram, capable of receiving and processing more than one watt of power transmitted across the distance using directional radio waves,” the researchers wrote, “Using the same technology, not only flying robots but also other devices that need a considerable amount of power can be powered.”
During the tests, the main purpose of which was to test the wireless power transmission system, the Japanese researchers were able to lift a flying robot into the air, which hung in place and was able to stay there for an unlimited time.
The robot created by the Japanese weighs only 1.8 grams, at least 25 times lighter than other similar devices with a wireless radio-frequency power transmission system. And due to its small size, this robot will be able to operate in extremely limited space, for example, inside pipelines, looking for cracks and defects.
“Our next step will be to combine the wireless power transmission system with a controller that will receive commands using the same radio waves and that will control the parameters of the robot’s flight,” the researchers write, “This will allow the robot not only to hover in one place, but also to fly freely in all possible directions. We believe that this is already technically feasible at this time.”
