Rob Wood's Talk on Robotic Insects

        Rob Wood's lecture focused on the creation of robotic insects and he started off by taking the simple flight of the bee or in this case, the fly, and asking many questions on the biological and physical mechanics that give the insect the ability to fly. He discussed moderate strain, large force, high efficiency, high bandwith, Piezo electric cantilevers, body torque, and other aspects of the robotic insect and the process that goes into making it. Most of those terms were unfamiliar to me and flew over my head. However, the inspiration for the assembly process interested me the most. The flying insect is created through mechanisms similar to that of a pop-up book. Everything is assembled and folded in one place. With one command, all the small pieces are put together perfectly and symmetrically.