The Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) project is research effort to develop a flying robot based on living insects flight techniques, i.e. an ornithopter

Ornithopter

An ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some...

. The flying robot will be capable of sustained autonomous flight. The design of artificial fly

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...

 is based on bionics

Bionics

Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.The word bionic was coined by Jack E...

 principles and relies on nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

 for actual implementation. The flight of ordinary flies is sustained by non-steady state aerodynamics

Aerodynamics

Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...

 forces and is guided by integrated inertial and visual sensors. Ordinary flies also have high power-to-weight ratio

Power-to-weight ratio

Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...

.

Current status

1. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley
   University of California, Berkeley
   The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
   
    led by Dr. Ron Fearing have developed MFI with parameters similar to ordinary fly and they claim it will be flying.
2. Dr. Robert Wood of Harvard has created a robot weighing 60 mg and with a wingspan
   Wingspan
   The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
   
    of 3 cm. Such a robot has been successfully launched .
3. WowWee is developing a toy dragonfly
   FlyTech Dragonfly
   The Flytech Dragonfly is WowWee's entry into remote-controlled flying toy industry. The Dragonfly has been incorrectly billed as the world's first commercially available RC ornithopter...
   
    that would fly under remote control
   Remote control
   A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
   
   .
4. Japanese researchers introduced radio-controlled robotic fly at International Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots
5. Students at Delft University of Technology
   Delft University of Technology
   Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...
   
   have demonstrated a 3 g flying ornithopter with an integrated camera.