Re: Fwd: [eecs-announce] Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers, Thursday 2-3, Swarm Lab

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

This made me think of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated_in_the_Nation .
Hands down, the best [Netflix] Black Mirror episode.

 > From: Brian <http://www.cs..edu/~b>
 > Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:09:48 -0800
 >
 > Good grief, this really makes me feel obsolete, more so than ChatGPT and 
 > all those.  Mike Eisenberg would have loved it:
 > 
 > -------- Forwarded Message --------
 > Subject: [eecs-announce] Solar-powered shape-changing origami 
 > microfliers, Thursday 2-3, Swarm Lab
 > Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 11:17:45 -0800
 > 
 > *Title:* Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers
 > *Speaker:* Kyle Johnson, UW
 > *Venue:* Swarm Lab, Thursday 2-3 PM
 > *Abstract:* The ability to disperse microfliers in the wind that fall, like
 > seeds and leaves, can help automate large-scale sensor deployments (1, 2).
 > Here, we present the first battery free microfliers that can change shape
 > in mid-air to vary their dispersal distance. We design origami microfliers
 > based on bi-stable leaf-out structures and uncover an important property: a
 > simple change in the shape of these origami structures enables two
 > dramatically different falling behaviors. When unfolded and flat,
 > the microfliers exhibit a tumbling behavior which experiences greater
 > lateral displacement in the wind. When folded inward, they instead have a
 > stable downward descent with minimal influence by wind. To electronically
 > transition between these two shapes, we designed a low-power
 > electromagnetic actuator that provides peak forces of up to 200 mN within
 > 25 ms while powered by solar cells. We fabricated our circuit directly on
 > the folded origami structure complete with a programmable microcontroller,
 > Bluetooth radio, solar power harvesting hardware, a pressure sensor for
 > altitude measurement and a temperature sensor. Our outdoor evaluations
 > show that our 414 mg origami microfliers can electronically change their
 > shape mid-air, travel up to 98 m in a light breeze, and wirelessly transmit
 > data via Bluetooth up to 60 m away, using only solar power harvesting.