Soon, a fluttering robot to show Mars rovers the way

London, Oct 1 : A winged robot, inspired by dragonfly, called the ExoFly, would soon be guiding planetary rovers on the bumpy surfaces of Mars.

The ExoFly will first be sent out first to explore the terrain of the red planet, reports New Scientist.

Team member Tanja Zegers of the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, said that the rover would then be directed towards any sites of interest by the easiest route.

One predecessor of the ExoFly, called DelFly, has already been developed at the Technical University of Delft. However, ExoFly has to flap its wings much faster than DelFly to stay aloft in the thin atmosphere of Mars.

Similarly, other ExoFlies would also be tailored to their host planets or moons.

The work will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Munster, Germany.

ANI