A feathered robot wing allows insights that were previously not possible
The dream of flying was inspired by birds and even today, understanding the flight characteristics of the animal world’s most effective and largest fliers plays an important role in the further development of new flight systems. It is almost impossible to fully understand these complex systems solely through observations in nature. how TechXplorer reported, a research team with members from Sweden and Switzerland has now developed a feathered robot wing.
Mechanical construction of the biomimetic wing (Credit: AIS)
“The new robotic wing can answer questions about bird flight that could not be answered by simply observing flying birds,” says Christoffer Johansson, a biologist involved at Lund University. The artificial wing is equipped with natural feathers from a jackdaw and, according to the researchers, goes far beyond previous robots of this type in terms of “complexity and aerodynamic control”.
Inspired by the skeleton of a bird’s wing(Credit: AIS)
As the team goes on to describe, their setup made it possible for the first time to precisely record the performance of a moving wing with realistic anatomy in a wind tunnel. This in turn provides important insights into how different types of wing upstroke and folding movements affect power and energy in flight.
Multiple benefits
For the researchers, their experiment has multiple benefits, since movement patterns can be reliably identified that better harmonize force generation and energy efficiency in systems with flapping wings. Among other things, the team sees great potential for a better understanding of bird migration, which is increasingly changing as a result of climate change.
However, new types of winged drones could also benefit from the findings. “The way the wings move is very important for performance and this is where our research could be useful,” Johansson said. So far, the focus here has been almost exclusively on “small insect-like systems with flat, non-foldable wings”.
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