http://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...puters-will-get-paid-start-working-drone-bugs
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-02/meet-baby-drone
Currently this is the smallest drone:
An associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia tech, Wu-chun Feng, who is also the creator of Green Destiny, a supercomputer so efficient that it basically runs on a couple of blow dryer's worth of power, will be working on making robot drone-bugs. He is also the person who made a list for ranking the efficiency of supercomputers, called the Green 500. Green Destiny wasn't on the top of the list since it was made over 10 years ago, so he created another computer which did top the list called HokieSpeed ( Virginia Tech Hokies).
The reason he is making these robot drone-bugs is because the Air Force wants someone who can help mane more efficient micro-air vehicles (MAVs). What does Fend get in return for working on these over a 3 year span? He will get getting $3.5 million. An top of this there is an optional two-year extension for an additional $2.5 million compensation.
10-centimeter bots have already been made and one person was able to get down to 3 centimeters by using a wire to feed it power. These are still to "clunky" to be used though. Feng and his team will try to use software to model airflow over the wings of MAVs to learn how best to stabilize the super-small machines in flight.
What did I get out of this article?
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-02/meet-baby-drone
Currently this is the smallest drone:
An associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia tech, Wu-chun Feng, who is also the creator of Green Destiny, a supercomputer so efficient that it basically runs on a couple of blow dryer's worth of power, will be working on making robot drone-bugs. He is also the person who made a list for ranking the efficiency of supercomputers, called the Green 500. Green Destiny wasn't on the top of the list since it was made over 10 years ago, so he created another computer which did top the list called HokieSpeed ( Virginia Tech Hokies).
The reason he is making these robot drone-bugs is because the Air Force wants someone who can help mane more efficient micro-air vehicles (MAVs). What does Fend get in return for working on these over a 3 year span? He will get getting $3.5 million. An top of this there is an optional two-year extension for an additional $2.5 million compensation.
10-centimeter bots have already been made and one person was able to get down to 3 centimeters by using a wire to feed it power. These are still to "clunky" to be used though. Feng and his team will try to use software to model airflow over the wings of MAVs to learn how best to stabilize the super-small machines in flight.
What did I get out of this article?
Virginia Tech is awesome.