In 2014, the French engineer Edwin van Ruymbeke has created a very unusual robot Bionic Bird, which is a bird that flies, realistic flapping wings. Five years later, the craftsman again declared itself, and this time presented an even more sophisticated mechanism — he designed a tiny butterfly MetaFly, which from a distance difficult to distinguish from a living creature. Mechanical insects can be controlled with a remote control and is likely to do it, anyone can, because the robot will be available for purchase.

With a length of 19 inches and a wingspan of 29 inches, the robot design weighs only 10 grams. For realistic light and flexible flapping wings meets the engine without core aluminum radiator, which is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Charging with a duration of 15 minutes is only enough for 8 minutes of flight, but at desire it is possible to equip the robot with the power supply with a capacity of 1500 mAh, which is enough for a 20 minute job. The speed of the robot is quite impressive, and reaches 12 miles per hour.

For flight control use the remote control, the radius of which is 100 metres away . All maneuvers the device performs by changing the angle of the tail. The wings and other elements of the electronic butterfly is made from flexible and lightweight materials: carbon fiber, liquid crystal polymer and the oriented polypropylene film.

At the moment, the Creator of the MetaFly is raising money for production through crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. It is expected that the price of the robot will be $ 146. Think this is quite an acceptable price for a mechanism that is reminiscent of impressive inventions by Festo.

Would you imagine such a robot, and why you need it? My opinion of him, you can write in the comments, or discuss this topic in our Telegram chat.