Monolithic fabrication of an insect‐scale self‐lifting flapping‐wing robot

Abstract

Robots on the order of insect‐scale are difficult to manufacture using MEMS technologies for sub‐millimetre structures or conventional methods for large devices beyond centimetres. This work presents an electromagnetically driven, monolithically fabricated, insect‐scale self‐lifting flapping‐wing robot for the first time. This robot is created using a simple monolithic method, by which most of the components are integrated and fabricated from a single sheet. Finally, the monolithic insect‐scale flapping‐wing robot can generate sufficient lift to take off.