Robot Bird Masters Winged Flight
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s SmartBird — the avian robot. German engineers claim they have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of bird flight.
For centuries man has tried to imitate nature by mimicking flight. Capturing the energy efficiency and subtlety of bird flight has proven to be tricky — until now. The German company Festo has created a bionic network where it takes what nature does best and tries to find automated applications, ranging from an elephant trunk-inspired handling assistant to jellyfish undulation and now the SmartBird.
From the company’s Bionic Learning Network engineers were able to solve the mystery of bird flight.
The herring seagull inspired the SmartBird, which not only can take off and land without any additional drive unit but it can flap its wings up and down. But the real breakthrough is an active articulated torsional drive unit that allows for extreme agility by letting the bird’s wings twist at specific angles while flapping up and down. This helps to maximize airflow around the bird and optimize the efficiency of its flight.
“In my estimation SmartBird is far more efficient and reliable than anything else ever before built in this field.” — Wolfgang Send, theoretical physicist, flight expert and scientist on the SmartBird project.
Leave a Reply
