Butterfly ornithopter high speed video

For most of us, the most familiar ornithopter robot is probably Flytech's remote controlled Dragonfly toy. However, the state of the art of flapping wing robots inspired by nature is still happening in robotics laboratories around the world. This post is about the butterfly ornithopter work at the Shimoyama-Matsumoto Laboratory, University of Tokyo, in Japan.

In a paper published at IROS 2008, Japanese researchers presented their work on building a 0.39gr ornithopter. The focus of their work rests on testing different materials and designs for the robot's wings. They constructed and tested three different types of butterfly wings made of a thin polymer membrane and micromolded polyurethane veins. In the end, the researchers discovered that wings with veins enable a butterfly to fly forward; moreover, they demonstrated stable forward flight using their laboratory-created, rubber-powered, miniature ornithopter. The robot flaps its wings at a frequency of 10Hz.

The video below shows the ornithopter in flight (using each of the three wing types) from the side and the front. The high-speed video is unbelievable!