When bird meets machine, bioinspired flight

IOP Publishing'sBioinspiration&Biomimeticspublishes a special edition today, Wednesday 24 November 2010, entitled Bioinspired Flight, comprising of nine journal papers which display the wealth of knowledge being accrued by researchers in the field.

Nature outclasses man's best efforts at robotic flight, as even the geometry and descent dynamics of a simple maple seed lead one research team from the University of Maryland, led by Dr. Evan Ulrich, to show that micro helicopters could be much simplified by imitating the maple seed's wing pitch for controlled hovering and, surprisingly, forward flight.

The issue, starting with two papers on tactics employed for controlled descent by geckoes and flying snakes, is accompanied by a selection of films - four of which areavailable on YouTube.

The first film, from a team led by graduate student Ardian Jusufi from UC Berkeley, shows how researchers have studied the gecko's trick of employing its tail to right and turn itself mid-air, helping it always fall on its feet, and have now made a robot model gecko which can employ the same grace on descent.

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Gecko fall. How mid-air righting gecko inspires robot gecko that can right itself during free fall. Credits: Ardian Jusufi and co-workers

A second film from Professor Jake Socha and his team at Virginia Tech displays themystifying skills of flying snakes, which direct their flight mid-air by slithering.

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Compilation of high-speed video's of flying snakes Chrysopelea paradisi. Credits: Courtesy of National Geographic Television; compiled by Jake Socha

Moving on from tactical descent, the special edition also covers humming birds' perfect hover; birds' intuitive exploitation of thermal updrafts; the mechanical motion of insects' wings, and seagulls' magnificent sense of flight environment, which allows them incredible angles of attack and increased control in crosswinds.

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Thorax design of the Harvard robot fly for powering and controlling its wingbeat. Credit: Benjamin Finio and Robert Wood

As the special edition's editor, Professor David Lentink from Wageningen University, writes in an accompanying editorial,"Because biologists and engineers are typically trained quite differently, there is a gap between the understanding of naturalflightof biologists and the engineer's expertise in designing vehicles that function well. In the middle however is a few pioneering engineers who are able to bridge both fields."

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