Palo Alto, United States - April 16, 2025 The Harvard RoboBee, a microrobot capable of flying, diving, and hovering like a real insect, now has a safer way to land. Engineers at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory have equipped RoboBee with new landing gear inspired by the crane fly, one of nature’s most graceful landers. Publishing in Science Robotics, the team led by Robert Wood designed long, jointed legs for RoboBee to help it land smoothly. An updated controller also assists with decelerating before touching down. The improvements protect RoboBee’s delicate piezoelectric actuators, which are crucial for flight but vulnerable to damage during rough landings. Landing has always been a challenge for RoboBee, which weighs just a tenth of a gram and has a wingspan of 3 centimeters. Ground effects from air vortices made stable landings difficult. Graduate student Christian Chan led the mechanical redesign. Previously, the team had to shut the robot off mid-air and hope for a safe drop. Nak-seung Patrick Hyun, now an assistant professor at Purdue University, led updates to the robot’s controller and ran controlled landing tests on various surfaces. Hyun explained that successful landings rely on minimizing velocity before impact and quickly dissipating energy after touching down. Looking to nature, the team chose the crane fly as their model. The crane fly’s long, jointed legs help it land gently, a feature now mimicked by RoboBee’s new design. Using records from Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, the team created prototypes with crane fly-like leg segmentation and joint locations. Postdoctoral researcher Alyssa Hernandez, who studied insect locomotion, contributed her biology expertise to the project. She noted that RoboBee is a powerful platform for combining biology and robotics. Currently, RoboBee is tethered to off-board control systems. Future goals include scaling up the robot and incorporating onboard electronics for full autonomy. Lead engineer Robert Wood emphasized that safe landing is critical for removing the safety tethers, moving closer to full autonomy. Potential applications for RoboBee include environmental monitoring, disaster surveillance, and even artificial pollination in future vertical farms.