The DelFly Micro, built by Delft University of Technology, is the world’s smallest ornithopther. The flapping robot has a 10 cm wingspan and even includes a video camera. In a mere year-and-a-half, the team decreased the weight from the 16 grams of the DelFly II, to the amazing 3 grams of the DelFly Micro.

The group hopes to use the ornithopther to study the aerodynamics of small flapping vehicles, as computer simulations prove very difficult. They also hope to use the onboard camera to achieve autonomous flight using machine vision. The current vehicle has a 30mAh lithium polymer battery that allows for 3 minutes of flight-time (the battery is 1/3 of the DelFly’s weight). The wings are made of mylar and flap at 30 Hz.

You can see some video of the ornithopther flying after the jump.

Update: The August 15th edition (MP3) of the Robots Podcast features an interview with the creators of the DelFly Micro.

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The Onion once again lays on some robot funnies. Previously they took on the question, are we giving the robots that run our society too much power? See the latest below.

Chris Anderson, over at DIY Drones, recently posted a full page advertisement, from the July edition of the AUVSI magazine, for AUS International’s AirSniper product. The AirSniper is described as, “a VTOL combat mini UAV intended for close infantry support.” Or, in other words, “a gun with wings.”

Now, this idea seems like a solid one – why not mount weapons on UAVs? In fact, it’s been done before. However, I don’t think anyone has every proposed a UAV sniper system that can also be torn-down to work as a regular, old, gun. Also, AUS claims,

Our patent pending “tilt and stop” rotor design concept gives AirSniper hovering performance and agility of helicopters, with speed and endurance of fixed wing airplanes.

Supposedly the airframe also allows for “precise aiming at any flight speed.” Quite a claim. The comedic aspects of the advertisement give some reason to doubt as to AUS International’s ability to bring this to market. Chris even said, “if this were the April edition, I’d think it was an April Fool’s joke”.

Some of the more laughable lines from the ad:

For an enemy up there, you could be like a sitting duck.
With AirSniper, sitting duck is the other guy.

WIRED’s DangerRoom blog also got into the action with their latest idea, the AirKnife.

Ok, so after AUS International had been give such a bad rap, what did I do? Well, I contacted them to find out what the skinny was. Check out our correspondance after the jump. (more…)

Pictured above is a group photo of all the teams competing in the 11th annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition. University of Maryland won the competition, unseating University of Florida from their 3 year winning streak. Congratulations to all the teams. The final standings for the top 8 teams are below. Pictured below is Maryland’s vehicle and a team photo.

Final Standings:

1. University of Maryland
2. University of Texas at Dallas
3. École de technologie supérieure
4. University of Florida
5. United States Naval Academy
6. University of Victoria
7. Cornell
8. Florida Atlantic University