A flying robot jellyfish! Where's Voltes V when you need him?

^{_{Photo credit: Leif Ristroph}}

 

Okay, granted that it's not as big as a beast fighter, but it's still awesome.

 

Instead of gliding in the water, this tiny robot jellyfish appears to be more comfortable gliding in the air. And it paves the way for making all our ornithopter dreams come true.

 

An ornithopter is a flying machine that can hover via a flapping-wing motion, like dragonflies and hummingbirds.

 

In the case of this robo-jellyfish, it can remain stable in flight using the movement of its wings alone, "without the need for additional stabilizers or complex feedback control loops to avoid flipping over," Nature.com reported.

 

 

Built by applied mathematicians Leif Ristroph and Stephen Childress of New York University, the machine is an ornithopter with four droplet-shaped wings made of Mylar.

 

The robot has transparent wings on a wire framework, but while in flight more resembles a jellyfish swimming in water.

 

"It can execute forward flight and stable hovering, and can right itself automatically from tilting. The researchers say that the motion of the wings generates a downward jet, as do the undulations of a jellyfish bell. The absence of this strategy among flying animals, they say, remains a mystery," Nature.com added.

 

The entire machine weighs just 2.1 grams, the report said. — TJD, GMA News