BaTboT is up for imitating smart bat maneuvers
Sunday, June 3, 2012 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org) -- Robotics researchers in Spain and the U.S. are studying bats for their design work on drones. Bat wings are highly articulated, with skeletons similar to those of human arms and hands. The researchers have built a drone that mimics the way a bat changes its wing shape in flight. Bats achieve an amazing level of maneuverability, says a researcher, mainly because of their capacity of changing wing morphology during flight. Specifically, the "Batbot" replicates the way a bat changes the profile of its wing between the downstroke and upstroke. By folding wings toward their bodies on the upstroke, bats use 35 percent less energy and reduce aerodynamic drag, according to researchers at Brown.