Talking Robots: Ron Fearing
	Posted 26 Oct 2007 at 11:21 UTC by mwaibel

After the science fiction hype about robot flies initiated by an article in the Washington Post two weeks ago (see the robots.net post and articles on Slashdot, FOX News, and The Boston Globe), the latest Talking Robots episode looks at the robot science behind news-story fiction. Ron Fearing, director of the Biomimetic Millisystem Laboratory at UC Berkeley in California, presents the state of the art in aerial insect-size flapping robots. He gives us an inside view of his Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) project, which looks at developing an autonomous 0.1 gram flying robot (make sure to also check out this video by Ron's former student Robert Wood). Ron Fearing's lab is also working on a number of other micro-robot projects, such as the Millirobots project, which should provide copious amounts of food for thought for conspiracy theorists, science fiction writers and robot enthusiasts alike.