One thin power strip all that stands between us and Harvard's robot insects

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute have created what they're calling RoboBees - robots smaller than a penny that can fly.

Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second, the tiny device not only represents the absolute cutting edge of micromanufacturing and control systems, but is an aspiration that has impelled innovation in these fields by dozens of researchers across Harvard for years.

Wyss researchers - who had earlier built robotic cockroaches - say the microbots could prove useful for such things as "distributed environmental monitoring, search-and-rescue operations, or assistance with crop pollination." They add that the techniques used in building wicked small motors and wings could spur advances in new medical devices.

The more paranoid, of course, could picture swarms of robobugs attacking people with mosquito-like germ reservoirs or just spying on us with their tiny (compound?) eyes. For now, we don't have to worry about that because the flying robots have to remain tethered to thin power cables - researchers have yet to develop a mobile power supply that could keep the devices flying for long periods of time.