U.S. boffins have come up with bug-sized robots that can fly into a room, record voices, transmit video and even fire tiny weapons.

The James Bond style gear is the work of a research project at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Greg Parker, who leads the project, said that the idea was to send a swarm of the robo-insects out to search a building. Micro Aerial Vehicles, or MAVs, could be as tiny as bumblebees and capable of flying undetected into buildings.

They could photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists.  We guess the bee sting would be loaded with nerve poison. The robots would also help reduce or avoid civilian casualties, the military says.

Parker and his colleagues plan to start by developing a bird-sized robot as soon as 2015, followed by the insect-sized models by 2030.

More here.