A Robotic Diptera

choi

Miniature flying robots | Robodiptera; An insect-like robot, no bigger than a fly, takes to the air. Economist, May 4, 2013
http://www.economist.com/news/sc ... kes-air-robodiptera
("Wingtip to wingtip they measure 3cm and they weigh just 80 milligrams," connected by a wire to a computer)

Note:
(a) Ma KY et al, Controlled Flight of a Biologically Inspired, Insect-Scale Robot. Science, 340: 603-607 (May 3, 2013)
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6132/603

For a vedeo clip, see

Press release: Robotic Insects Make First Controlled Flight; In culmination of a decade's work, RoboBees achieve vertical takeoff,
hovering, and steering. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering AND School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, May 2, 2013.
http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/110/
(b) "These robots are the size of crane flies. * * * Like true flies (those known to entomologists as Diptera), and unlike dragonflies or butterflies, they have but a single pair of wings."
(i) crane fly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

My guess is it looks like a crane, in a manner of speaking.
(ii) diptera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diptera
(c)  piezoelectricity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity
(Greek piezo or piezein, which means to squeeze or press; discovered in 1880 by French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie)
(d) "Dr Wood’s robots are modelled on a hoverfly called Eristalis."

Eristalis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eristalis
(a genus in the order of Diptera)
(e) "Some, such as the DelFly Micro, a robot with a 10cm wingspan build by Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, are also ornithopters. Others are helicopters. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated how a swarm of palm-sized devices with a rotor on each corner can fly together in formation. And Seiko Epson, a Japanese firm, has built an 8cm-tall robot that uses contra-rotating blades mounted on the same shaft to achieve stability."
(i) DelFly Micro.
http://www.delfly.nl/?site=diii&menu=home&lang=en
("The DelFly Micro only weighs 3 grams and has a size of 10 cm from wing tip to wing tip. This makes it the smallest flying ornithopter carrying a camera in the world!")

"With its two pairs of flapping wings [plus a small tail, that is not found in a dragonfly], the DelFly resembles a dragonfly."
(ii) Seiko Epson Micro flying robot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko_Epson_Micro_flying_robot
(µFR)