13 April 2007
When Did We Learn How Insects Fly?
We only learned how insects fly in the late 1990s. And already researchers are working on tiny flying robobugs. The challenges are enormous, but why are these interesting projects so often funded by DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency? Why not PARPA (Peace)? It changes the focus of the projects and maybe we would learn more about how to get on with each other. But I love robots. And DARPA is funding my future robot car. The DARPA desert challenge was solved last year including a team from Australia. The new challenge is through the streets of San Francisco. These vehicles see and process and move for themselves – they don’t just have an exact pre-programmed route to follow. This is where robots currently are and Australia has some great engineers and scientists in this area.
