Tag Archives: Festo

Robotic Butterfly by Festo

May 20th, 2015 | Robot

Robotic Butterfly by Festo 2

Robotic Butterfly by Festo 1

The German company, Festo, has a history of making incredible, biomimetic robots in their laboratories. We have featured kangaroos, dragonflies, and jellyfish in the past. They’ve also made Air-Penguins, Air-Ray, robotic birds, and the Airacuda. The butterfly may seem less ambitious than those efforts, but the butterflies can swarm in the air while avoiding collisions.

Each butterfly weighs a little over an ounce and has a wingspan of 20 inches. They consist of nothing more than a couple of motors, batteries, infrared markers, and soft, elastic wings.

The robots were not developed to sell but represent continued research efforts towards making ultralight, networked robotics systems. I think the company should focus on these creations and move them to market. I want one!

You can read more about the specs here.

-RSB

Robotic Kangaroo

April 16th, 2014 | Robot

Festo Robotic Kangaroo

Festo Robotic Kangaroo 2

Festo has a knack for creating incredibly realistic robotic animals (see Dragonfly & Jellyfish). The company’s new product is the Robotic Kangaroo seen above.

Here’s a word from Festo:

“On the artificial kangaroo, Festo intelligently combines pneumatic and electrical drive technology to produce a highly dynamic system. The stable jump kinematics plus the precise control technology ensure stability when jumping and landing. The consistent lightweight construction facilitates the unique jumping behaviour. The system is controlled by gestures.”

I still have no idea who purchases these robotic animals. What functional use do they have? Regardless, I am glad they do. If I had the money, I would have one of these hopping around my apartment right now.

Festo has now created jellyfish, penguins, kangaroos, and dragonflies… It would be pretty amazing to attend a company happy hour and see all of these animals moving around in the same space. Maybe they could make a robotic zoo of sorts?

-RSB

The Festo Robotic Dragonfly

April 19th, 2013 | Robot

festo robotic dragonfly 1

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Robotic Dragonfly:

One of the very first posts I ever made on RobotSpaceBrain was about Festo’s robotic flying animals (jelly fish, penguins, birds). Their new toy, called the BioniCopter, is modeled after the complex flight pattern of a Dragonfly.
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 The robot only weighs about 175 g and maneuvers with incredible grace.
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It’s supposedly very easy to control as well, using a complex flapping motion handled by the software and electronics, allowing the pilot to use a simple smartphone app to steer the Robotic Dragonfly around in space.

How It Works:

The machine is run by an ARM microcontroller, which calculates all of the parameters relating to mechanical adjustments based on input from its sensors (accelerometers and such). The microcontroller then translates all that useful input information into control commands for the Servo motors so it can flap its wings appropriately.

Here are a few specifications from the Festo site:

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festo robotic dragonfly 7

General Thoughts:

Truly amazing products keep coming out of the German Festo Laboratories.  I am not sure who is buying them, but of course, there are many potential applications for the high-tech flying robots.  I am sure the military is keeping close tabs…
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It would be interesting to see if you could scale this up and make a Giant Robotic Dragonfly…

You can read more at the Festo website.

-RSB

Robotic AirJelly

October 16th, 2011 | Robot

Festo Air Jelly

Festo is a German industrial control and automation company that has released a host of breathtaking videos of pneumatic air-animals in recent years. I can’t really see a functional use for these amazing robotic creatures… Continue reading