ESP-FLUTTER robot butterfly flies on two servo-driven flapping wings
ESP-FLUTTER is a remote-controlled robot butterfly built by the maker Max Imagination. It weighs about 70 grams with its battery and flies by flapping its wings instead of spinning propellers. Each wing has its own fast digital servo, and a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C3 board runs the servos, the battery monitor and LEDs along the wing edges.
You fly it from a phone browser over its own Wi-Fi, or with a regular RC transmitter through an optional ExpressLRS receiver. The wings are thin plastic film stretched over carbon-fiber rods.
By the creator's figures, a battery lasts about five minutes and the longest continuous flight so far is 1 minute 9 seconds. The firmware is free for personal use, while the 3D-printed frame files are a paid download. The creator says it is meant for makers who already have electronics and RC experience.
More on drones.
About the footage: Remote-controlled: flown by a human pilot from a phone or RC transmitter.
Sources
- Hackster.io: ESP-FLUTTER Is a Robotic Butterfly That Actually Flies
- Circuit Digest: This 70 g Robot Butterfly Actually Flies
- MCU Atlas: ESP-FLUTTER project page
- Max Imagination (YouTube): Make an ESP32 RC Bionic Butterfly That Flies | ESP-FLUTTER
- Max Imagination (GitHub): ESP-FLUTTER firmware
New to robots? Read our guide: How robots work: a beginner's guide.
Summarized by Servospace from the sources above, drafted with AI help and checked against those sources before publishing. Claims are the companies' or outlets' unless we say otherwise. How we work.