Kevin Chen, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, managed to develop a prototype of a mini – drone that is remarkable for its amazing lightness, maneuverability, and stability, with its phenomenal weight of only 0.6 grams and the size of an insect. The drone is equipped with a new class of soft drive, which allows it to withstand the loads of real flight with dignity. Also, especially for this drone, a fundamentally new engine based on piezoelectricity was developed, according to Chen, for robots that look like insects, “it is necessary to look for alternative designs.” Scientists believe that robots modeled on this prototype will be able to pollinate fields and plants, thereby revolutionizing agriculture.

Read the full text in MIT News.

A demonstration of the drone’s capabilities on YouTube.