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sodiumphosphate
Festo is just fascinating. I feel like a child every time they produce a new video like this.
lenazegher
I honestly had no idea such things were possible. Aside from the sheer amazing delight, are there advantages to flapping-wing modes of flight?
DoubleCluster
It's the future! I think that it would be great for agility, and perhaps to mimic insects so the army can use them covertly.
ams6110
Or to replace the bees (see "Bees Dying" currently on the HN front page) if/when they go extinct
[dead] fosfori
There must be some, I guess, but certainly not the comfort of possible passengers according to the video.
pcarmichael
While I am amazed at the engineering and seriously impressed at what they accomplished, I can't help but watch the video and think that that is one portly-looking dragonfly.
monsterix
Yep!

Though for a first generation it looks quite good. It is quite functional indeed, and a great achievement for the engineers.

But yes, the tail and head seem to pick up a lot vibration of swinging wings. Can't wait for the next iteration!

escherba
Looks like the park of the Permian period will be robotic.
scotty79
That's a good PR. Instead of paying TV to say "FESTO makes best manufacturing automation devices" in a fancy way, they just dedicated some engineers and some budget to making cool things no-one ever did before.
neya
That's so cool! At 63cm, I wouldn't exactly call it a dragon fly though...A flying squirrel maybe? :D
pbaehr
You must have some weird looking squirrels where you live.
neya
Not exactly where I live, but there's a mountain nearby and I recently happened to go trekking, there were some giant squirrels - At the size of an average puppy dog, or an over-grown cat...
splotcheleven
Really old dragonfly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura

Meganeura is a genus of extinct insects from the Carboniferous period approximately 300 million years ago, which resembled and are related to the present-day dragonflies. With wingspans of up to 65 cm (25.6 in), M. monyi is one of the largest known flying insect species; the Permian Meganeuropsis permiana is another. Meganeura were predatory, and fed on other insects, and even small amphibians.

neya
Wow! Thanks for the info..here the dragon flies have a span of maximum say, something under 10 cm...so, was surprised to see something at 63 cm..
samstave
Whats really interesting is that the amount of oxygen in the air impacts the size of insects.

There was a study where by increasing the amount of oxygen in the air, in just a few generations, insect were gaining as much as 10% in size.

SEJeff
So what I find interesting is a swarm of these suckers. Put cameras on them and send a small swarm of 40-50 into a building. The fun part would be writing the pathfinding code so that they don't hit eachother.
scarmig
I wonder how often real life dragonflys hit each other.
scotto
Does anyone know what servos they run in these?