It's a Nano Hummingbird!
Aerovironment has been working on this since 2006. Under a $4 million contract from Darpa they have a hummingbird drone that weighs 19 grams, flies 11 mph, can hover, fly forwards, backwards or sideways, turn clockwise and counterclockwise and flight time is 8 minutes.
19 grams! Battery, motors, communications, video camera, and hummingbird paint scheme. That's less than 4 nickels in weight.
The pentagon mileposts for this project include hovering in a 5 mph wind, fly indoors and back out through a normal size doorway.
Comments
Awesome.
But we really need a revolution in battery tech; 8 minutes is a tad too short.
Hopefully something like micro turbines will come along shortly.
The video of a 1 minute flight is in http://www.avinc.com/nano
Not sure about the 8 minutes or the hours between overhauls, but suspect the $30 version from Shanghai is just around the corner.
That's incredible!
Identification, please.
Voice key incorrect.
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