The TU Delft has the flying ‘robotlibelle’ DelFly Explorer is unveiled. The only 20 gram DelFly Explorer can independently fly by as-yet-unknown areas. Also know the software on board the obstacles to dodge.
According to the TU Delft is the DelFly Explorer, the world’s first micro air vehicle with flapping wings independently is able to dodge obstacles. In addition to the low weight of the robotlibelle of a few a4 pages of new areas of application for such minirobots. So would the DelFly Explorer can be used in greenhouses in order to view or fruit already ripe.
The battery is the heaviest part of the robotlibelle. It offers a flight time of up to 9 minutes. Further, the DelFy Explorer autonomous take-off and at the correct height continue.
One of the main challenges with the design was the weight. As weighs, for example, a quadrocopter at least fifty times more. For the wings, is a material used that is similar to keukenfolie. Also carbonstaafjes in the design. Another challenge was to keep the design stable, with the flapping wings. Also, there is a lot of energy into the development of an algorithm to quickly find the relevant data from the generated images. In a next version of the software must be further refined, allowing the robotlibelle from one space to another space can fly.