These tiny wasp-inspired drones can open a door 40 times their weight, and could one day be used in disaster zones

IEEE Spectrum/YouTube

• Researchers have built tiny microdrones capable of tugging open a door 40 times their weight.
• They took inspiration from predatory wasps, which can drag large prey along the ground.
• One researcher said the technology could be adapted for more complex tasks such as moving debris or retrieving objects from disaster zones.

Researchers have built microdrones, capable of tugging open a door 40 times their weight, by studying the biology of predatory wasps.

Robotics researchers at Stanford University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland wanted to find a way for tiny microdrones to exert “forceful tugging,” so they turned to biomimetics — meaning they took inspiration from the natural world.

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