Renewed interest in centimeter-scale flight vehicles for short-range urban surveillance and sampling missions led to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program (2006-2008). This effort explored technology for fixed wing, rotary wing, or flapping wing vehicles of 7.5 centimeter length and 10 grams total mass that can fly for 20 minutes with a range of 1 kilometer. Under this program the authors participated in a Lockheed Martin-led development of a unique self-propelled monowing rotorcraft, Samarai, inspired by a maple seed [1]. Following the end of the NAV program, continued research and development led by Lockheed Martin has resulting in successful demonstration of flight by Samarai vehicles at multiple scales.
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