Moving with the speed and agility of an insect, the tiny robot could someday assist in search-and-rescue missions. They developed a new AI-based controller that allowed the robotic insect to perform demanding flight maneuvers, including repeated body flips. The two-part control system combines strong performance with computational efficiency. Compared with the researchers’ best earlier demonstrations, it increased the robot’s speed by about 450 percent and its acceleration by roughly 250 percent. A robotic insect no larger than a microcassette and weighing less than a paperclip can now perform rapid, demanding flight maneuvers.