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10 seconds / 581 KB

Video source: "Robofly" (2001, Pyramid Media). Produced by Jason Spingarn-Koff. Animation by John Atkinson    

This animation shows a micromechanical flying insect taking off and landing.

The animated robot rests on a tripod of solar panels, has polyester wings and stainless steel struts. The wings aren't able to do the complex arcs that a fly can manage, but do simple things, like flap and rotate. In this simulation, the wings are about half an inch long and look like miniature paddles.

After the Quicktime movie loads and has played through, use the Quicktime controls to click through one frame at a time to see what cannot be seen at full speed. Faster than the human eye is able to observe, the animated robot's wings, like that of fly, can flap and rotate simultaneously, at 150 times per second.