MIT’s tiny flying robot gets 450% faster with AI

Tiny flying robots may one day help rescuers search for people trapped beneath collapsed buildings after earthquakes. Because of their small size, these robotic insects could potentially move through narrow spaces that larger drones cannot enter while avoiding walls, debris, and falling objects.

Until recently, however, aerial microrobots have been far less nimble than the insects that inspired them. They typically moved slowly and followed relatively simple flight paths.

Researchers at MIT have now demonstrated a new approach that gives an insect-scale flying robot much greater speed and agility. The team developed an AI-based controller that allows the robotic bug to perform demanding aerial maneuvers, including repeated body flips.

Using a two-part control system designed to balance performance with computational efficiency, the researchers increased the robot's speed by about 450 percent and its acceleration by about 250 percent compared with their previous best results.