Insect Scale Robotics

And is a bit frightening too.

The Deep Learning Way to Design Fly-Like Robots
EPFL (Switzerland)
October 11, 2019

Researchers at Switzerland's Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) have developed motion-capture software that uses deep learning to model a fruit fly's movements in three dimensions (3D), in the hope of designing fly-like robots. The DeepFly3D system uses multiple cameras to record images of a fly crawling atop a small floating ball, which the software processes. DeepFly3D can infer the insect's pose in three dimensions, predicting and calculating behavioral measurements at ultra-fine resolution without the need for manual calibration. The system also employs active learning to improve its own performance. EPFL's Pavan Ramdya said, "If we learn how [the fly] does what it does, we can have important impact on robotics and medicine and, perhaps most importantly, we can gain these insights in a relatively short period of time." .....