By Alan Kendrick J.D., Nerac Analyst
Originally Published: September 22nd, 2014
Introduction
Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) and Micro Flyers are a class of unmanned air vehicles that are extremely small and by necessity, extremely maneuverable. These devices are on the order of 20 cm in size weighing less than 100 grams; about the size of a small bird or larger flying insects. The demonstrated and proposed uses for these MAV are numerous and span both military and civilian applications.
MAV development was born in the early ‘90s from microsystems (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS) research by the Rand Corporation, and subsequent research by MIT regarding micro flyers. The MEMs research provided the miniaturization of sensors, controls, communication devices, mechanical systems and packaging required for MAV, and the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT provide feasibility studies for micro flyer designs. The results of these two research programs laid the foundation for DARPA’s Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) program.
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