Quite a hot topic in the mainstream in recent years:
---
Yahoo, AP: Micro Aerial Vehicles
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Micro...eab1f1b120d00b1
"In this photo, taken from video of computer animation and released by the U.S. Air Force, shows the next generation of drones, called Micro Aerial Vehicles, or MAVs. The MAVs could be as tiny as bumblebees and capable of flying undetected into buildings, where they could photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists. U.S. military engineers are trying to design flying robots disguised as insects that could one day spy on enemies and conduct dangerous missions without risking lives."
---
Of course, not exactly new.
google images: cia dragonfly
For example:
---
From Wired
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/...d-power-fo.html
As far back as the 1970's the CIA were experimenting with a micro air vehicle which looked like a dragonfly. Flight International reported last year:
Developed during the 1970s, the CIA has displayed a mock-up of the micro UAV in its museum at its headquarters in Langley, Virginia since 2003. However until now no media organisation has been given access to the material that proved that the artificial dragonfly had been flight tested.
…. In the 1970s the CIA was interested in the dragonfly concept as a small unmanned surveillance device. Flight cannot reveal exactly what materials have been seen, but can confirm the four-winged robotic insect achieved sustained flight…. The CIA's entomopter dragonfly's power supply and actuation system for its wings are still highly classified subjects.
The CIA drone really does look like a real dragonfly – see the photo to the left. The problem was apparently with the flight control system, as the craft could not cope with crosswinds. This type of problem can be solved much more easily with modern electronics. The big issue with a craft so small is the power supply. Until we can get something as compact and efficient as the biological version (and there already ecobots that power themslves by digesting insects), the answer for robotic insects is likely to be beamed power.
