Near future
Contact us
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • energia
  • Transportation
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • Gadgets
  • Italy Next
  • H+
July 3 2022

Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine

Near future

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

Read in:  Chinese (Simplified)EnglishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseRussianSpanish

The bird drone that changes wings and tail to fly like a bird of prey

The bird drone developed by the Polytechnic University of Lausanne (EPFL) shows all the potential of flight inspired by that of birds of prey.

Gianluca Ricciodi Gianluca Riccio
in concepts
Share40Pin12Tweet25SendShare7ShareShare5
The bird drone that changes wings and tail to fly like a bird of prey
October 29, 2020
⚪ Reads in 4 minutes
A A

In 2016, an interesting project of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland began. The researchers drew inspiration from birds to produce a feathered drone with unique capabilities.

Since then, the team has continued to refine this design of a aircraft with more moving parts, allowing the bird drone to fly with "unprecedented agility".

Bird drone
The scheme of operation of the wings of the bird drone

A drone that flies like a bird

The version of the feathered drone developed a few years ago impressed with its ability to fly quickly, turn sharply and also adapt its body in the face of strong winds.

It is able to do this thanks to a series of shape-shifting wings that alter their openness and surface area, through artificial feathers that can be retracted and expanded, just like those of a real bird.

Maybe you are also interested

Winds of war, China launches the Zhu Hai Yun, the world's first "bearer"

Hera, foldable beast drone: lifts 15kg, flies for an hour and fits in a backpack

Undefined, The 'UFO' drone: silent and ion-powered

CCY-01, the incredible cargo drone from Cyclotech and Yamato

Wings and tail move together

Bird drone inspired by the goshawk raptor
A Goshawk, the bird of prey that the researchers inspired the bird drone

For their updated version, the EPFL researchers paired these shape-shifting wings with a mutable tail, which further increases biomimicry. This bird drone is modeled after the flight of the goshawk, a bird of prey capable of making changes in flight to chase its prey.

“Goshawks move their wings and tail together to perform the desired movement. They are capable of quick changes of direction when hunting, fast flying in the open field or gliding to save energy, ”he says Enrico Ajanic , the first author of the study.

The bird drone uses a thruster for its forward thrust and for its wings. According to the researchers, it is also a more efficient solution from an energy point of view. Just as it adjusts its wings in flight, the drone can also move its tail to change direction more quickly, improve its aerodynamics, or slow down without crashing.

“Our design leverages the principles of agile bird flight to create a feathered drone capable of performing similar to that of birds of prey. But it also tests the biological hypothesis that a moving tail plays an important role in faster turns, decelerations and even slow flight, "he says. Dario Floreano, who led the research.

Bird drone
EPFL Bird Drone
The shape-shifting wing of the bird drone

The missing link

What a bird drone like this offers compared to quadcopters is a longer flight time. This makes it suitable for certain applications such as the delivery of medical supplies over long distances or the survey of agricultural land. It also has weaknesses, anyway. For example in stationary flight. The researchers however consider it a good compromise.

"The bird drone we just developed is something of a middle ground," he says florean. “It can fly a long time but is almost as agile as a quadcopter. A combination of functions particularly useful for flying in forests or between city buildings ”.

You can hear the researchers and see the bird drone in action in the video below.

The research was published in the journal Science Robotics.

tags: biomimeticsdronedronesEPFL
Previous post

JaxJox, that is: technologies for the fitness and gym of the future

Next Post

New study: Glutamine crucial for regenerating muscles from injury and aging

COLLABORATE

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

    archive

    Have a look here:

    Peter Diamandis: "Over the next 10 years we will reinvent every sector"
    Technology

    Peter Diamandis: "Over the next 10 years we will reinvent every sector"

    In his new book, the entrepreneur and futurologist Peter Diamandis takes us with blows of optimism: in 10 years, he says, the ...

    Read More

    Pinching, spray skin to repair wounds and burns

    ocean floor

    We want colonies on Mars, but we only know about 20% of the ocean floor

    plastic sachet of algae

    Notpla, the seaweed plastic bag dissolves directly in the coffee

    The hummingbird-spy of DARPA

    The hummingbird-spy of DARPA

    The daily tomorrow

    Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Environment
    Architecture
    Artificial intelligence
    Gadgets
    concepts
    Design

    Staff
    Archives
    Advertising
    Privacy Policy

    Medicine
    Spazio
    Robotica
    Work
    Transportation
    energia

    To contact the FuturoProssimo editorial team, write to [email protected]

    Chinese Version
    Édition Française
    Deutsche Ausgabe
    Japanese version
    English Edition
    Edição Portuguesa
    Русское издание
    Spanish edition

    This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
    © 2021 Futuroprossimo

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Tech
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Architecture
    • energia
    • Transportation
    • Spazio
    • AI
    • concepts
    • Gadgets
    • Italy Next
    • H+