Show B2 — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday September 25 2002 the future of espionage? Tiny flying robots BERKELEY Calif (AP) — Understanding the aerodynamics that allow insects and hummingbirds to fly is the key to an invention that researchers hope will create a little buzz and a lot of flap Biologists and technologists at the University of California Berkeley have spent the past four years developing a tiny robot called the Micromechanical Flying Insect that they say will one day fly like a fly The Berkeley pmject is among a handful aiming to engineer devices that can soar dart and hover on gossamer wings that flap with a rhythm and precision otherwise found only in nature The projects are taking different paths but the goal is the same: chum out tiny nimble devices that can surreptitiously spy on enemy troops explore the surface of Mars' or safely monitor dangerous chemical spills The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding much of the work because ofits potential application in both reconnaissance and surveillance In recent years scientists at Berkeley and elsewhere have made huge strides in under- - ' ' standing insect and bird flight Their challenge is now to apply that knowledge to the design of devices that at lepst at Berkeley mimic the size weight power and — above all — aerodynamic elegance of a fly “What we’re targeting is the blowfly how it specs out” said Tim Sands a professor of materials science and engineering Lest anyone scoff Sands and his colleagues point out that a fly can lift jts own weight turn ' more quickly than any fighter jet zip about even on tom wings —and cap it all off by landing on the ceiling ' “Insects” said Berkeley’s Ron Fearing “have tremendous maneuverability” In a cluttered campus lab the professor of 'electrical engineering' and computer sciences uses tweezers to pick up a prototype of the mechanical insect The robot is a flyweight contender for the title of most ambitious of alf pocket-chang- 'i r ft r "C " - 'W' 5 ji f 4 s V ? i f 1 It ' AP photo Patrick iZdunich an aerospace engineer from the University of Toronto watches a robot fly that is being developed jointly with the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park Calif The mix of engineers biologists 'and others has spent the past four years developing a tiny robot called the Micromechanical Flying Insect that members say will one day fly like a fly" -- ar ' finger-jabbin- - best This makes sense but it’s not easy Printers are yet another piece of machinery to buy and maintain And paper records must somehow be shuffled to - ' ensure secrecy Unfortunately none of the touchscreen machines used in Florida can print receipts without being retrofitted by their Have a Sandwich! BrakM TUns-Up- a manufacturers and by the state In thefuture a reasonable computer voting system might resemble the one ' debuting in next month’s presidential election in Brazil There voters on some touchscreen terminals will view a paper receipt with their selections The paper slip sits behind a Plexiglas window allowing voters to see that their intentions match their votes If so they merely touch a button marked “OK” and the votes are recorded The paper receipt is saved as a backup record Even better the computer printouts : could be used as the original ballot which could be optically scanned or d as needed Florida' officials are in a bind now asking the federal government for help They can’t trust the touchscreens without a paper backup but they doq’t have time to retrofit and the machines before the November election It’s a tough issue If touchscreen voting generates so many problems what about Internet voting? Hacking verifying iden- tities and ensuring privacy are just a few potential snags What should Florida dp? It might be a good time to seek the simplicity of a paper ballot And send those machines back to the manufacturers hand-counte- Altamatoia Cooling Syitam Ol Swvica a Buck Save far SI the La lua'l Bacfc Gold-farbsa- state-of-the-- Thanks to you Paraders applauded To the editor We are writing to express our appreciation to the many people and organizations who took part in the Wellsville Founders’ Day Parade We are grateful for everyone's support especially those who have willingly participated in our parade year after year We have received many positive comments about the parade and feel it was very successful Thanks once again to all of those who took part Our parade wouldn’t be possible without you Parade Committee Wellsville Thanks for flag project To the editor The management and residents of Greenbriar Apartments in Smithfield want to thank Derick Hardy of Troop No 1054 for providing and installing the new flag pole at Greenbriar and also for the new flag to fly from it The flag pole was installed on Sept 11 2002 for his Eagle project and it is much appreciated Ralph G Sorenson Smithfield ' ' Jazz Guitarist lack Petersen Concert Thursday September 26th 7:30 pm Eccles Conference Center CUT ' FREE Admission any sandwich or hamburger MW HbllOirtil 787-004- Hawaii’s 1M Eaal 14QO North a Loaaa JT1SXOMING HISlSATURDA Timing BUU Watopumpa Satirical Prattama Stale Impactions 0 Rid Inaction 1 I This concert is being made possible through a donation Jtom the Marie Ecaes Cain Foundation JuU ) Cache Valley Tf Live Entertainment by: UffllMP iidMImd Kevin Allred Fay and Dale Belnap Bridgerland Brass Cache Childreri’sQioir fanUUChoir Cache Valiev School of Ballet Jtentek Staee K - ' Cinnamon lillside 9 Hotfoot Quartet ltaShanDajloejjihage Lux Musica Keservata of 1tah Sun House tfealers Jeremy Threlfall JJnieomTheatre L&ll 1'llM-liMV- r:l T etti rv Handod arts activities (at all aw Historic theatre district tours Art demonstrations information 1 I Area aits All Events Saturday September 1 ' ' $U Synlpjiotiy Orchestra ini£T 5M2tEB®St GsbsbS Sale VftarKw'hlnmiis u Bio UtoJlbb " imiHhil 'hill tout u v ArfaM SfW—nW wfil M rtwr KUtX IMm Call (435) IVwhfl fa fr 752-002- 6 for more infofvikili VnriCn!r?1rtArttm I id As it works to get its fly to take wing the Berkeley team acknowledges it has set its sights high “It’s a little bit of a moonshot” Dickinson said 5 rr jaa I six-inc- Transmiasiona ' ' wfaWli Mm ' ’ B1 ed - the flapping robots genetically called omithopters enlomopters or micro air vehicles It has yet to fly The Berkeley device is being developed under a five-yeroughly $25 million contract That's pricey for something best They didn't even give voters any response like offering a final screen coii- firming votes would be cast as intended 'Instead they saved results as ethereal electrons on magnetic disks “In case the machine malfunctions or was misprpgrammed you can’t go back ahd do an independent recount” Mercuri says “You can’t see what actually went on inside the machine" Computers certainly have a place in elections They're great for monitoring and transmitting preliminary results from precincts to central polling headquarters And it's inevitable that a simple computer interface will eventually overtake the punch caid and lever booths as the ' dominant voting platform But computer memory needs to be backed up with something more tangible Mercuri and others say a printed “receipt” of each vote cast would be ' ’ i) - T recount appears no one can ever be sttfe Election researchers like Bryn Mawr College's Rebecca Mcrcuri have shown that touchscreen computers can get knocked out of whack after a day's worth g of And for someone intent on election malfeasance they’re easy to sabotage A " person can daub hair gel or other goo on the screen tricking it into thinking a finger is pressing a button This can alter the subsequent votes made on the machine Mercuri says Errors in just 1 percent of the votes are enough to throw an election she said In Florida’s Democratic primary gubernatorial cimdidate Bill McBride defeated former US Attorney General Janet Reno by less than half of 1 percent Optical scanners used to scan Florida's paper ballots weren’tr immune to prob' lems either shredded mutilated ballots- But or They with a paper ballot — however disfigured ' — election officials could still revert to a hand count With touchscreen voting platforms this was impassible Those machines created no duplicate I 4 records that could be 'used for a hand H ra ' it 1 Continued from i ke robotic insects in battle using them to snoop as only a fly on the wall can “It takes an individual and extends their sensory capabilities — like a periscope — but it ' flies independently” said Roy Kombluh an engineer at SRI International in Menlo Park Along with DARPA the firm has funded development at the University of Toronto of robot called another flapper a “Mentor” During a February flight the device became the first omithopter to successfully hover doing so with the agility of a hummingbird Mentor is about one foot across and weighs one pound researchers hope eventually to shrink it down to hummingbird size and weight As difficult as flapping flight is to ace researchers remain enchanted by it because it makes for miniature flying machines that don’t gobble large amounts of power “Flapping is much more aerodynamically efficient at small sizes rather than convention- al aerodynamics” said Michael Dickinson a professor of integrative biology at Berkeley and a pioneer in understanding insect flight Building wings that flap is one thing but endowing a robot with enough smarts to control that flapping enough to sustain flight remains difficult if not impossible “The good news is we know what the wings need to do The bad news is we don't know how to do it” Fearing said ' Consider the fruit fly Dickinson says lt beats its wings 200 times a second flapping and rotating them on each stroke in a Complicated orchestration that relies on three distinct four-wing- I -- U-tu- rn Officials envision soldiers deploying the if! : : Voting mechanisms to provide it lift In just eight strokes and 40 milliseconds a fruit fly can make a midair Fearing estimates that to copy that level of control the three-stroBerkeley bug would have about a and the fly fourth the Mistime error of margin he death said a into spiral goes Robert Michelson principal research engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology Research Institute said it's too difficult to build a robot that relies solely on modulating its flapping wings for stability and control fins to Even the Mentor uses four tail-lik- e direct the downwash of its flapping wings to remain aloft Michelson said he is developing a flapping robot called the entomopter that will use bursts of gas a byproduct of the device's chemical propulsion system to adjust the amount of lift provided by each of the robot’s twin sets of wings “Until we can do things as well as you find them in Creation you have to go to alternate techniques” Michelson said of his device which NASA is eyeing for use on Mars Size is also a problem: members of the team behind the Mentor said they opted to get their robot flying before shrinking it The Berkeley team has taken the Opposite approach — one that others said may prove overly ambitious Michael Goldfarb an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University said limitations in battery and artificial mus' cle technology will keep the tiniest omithopters grounded Goldfarb’s own efforts to build a flapping h robot with a wingspan were unsuc- cessful “Our conclusion to that study was it’s not doable with technology” e terms described in It takes about a dime's worth of raw materials including stainless steel that must be folded under a microscope to build one of the robots A single penny weighs more than two dozen of the devices And each boasts a wingspan that matches the diameter of a quarter 1 m ntv ® ' |