This drone with real feathers perfectly reproduces the flight of a bird

[ad_1]

The functioning of bird wings has always been a source of wonder and questioning for scientists. Researchers at Stanford University in California have partially succeeded in solving this mystery by creating a remote-controlled drone with real wings. The works on the "PigeonBot" have been published in the journals Science and Science Robotics January 16, 2020.

Small wrist and finger movements

The team of scientists started with a question: how do birds change the shape of their wings during a flight? To try to answer it, she studied the wings of pigeon corpses in a wind tunnel. They thus discovered that the birds adjust the placement of their 40 feathers by small movements of the wrist and fingers. They also found that the feathers can stick to each other thanks to a biological mechanism similar to Velcro to ultimately form a single wing. This phenomenon is all the more visible when the animal spreads its wings in order to increase their resistance to turbulence.

After the theory, practice. The next step was to reproduce these mechanisms in an attempt to create a flying object. Beyond the creation of a drone, the scientists' objective was to verify the hypotheses they had made and to better understand the flight of birds. The design was simpler than the engineers imagined.

The feathers all follow the same movement

In fact, birds do not operate each of their feathers individually. They all automatically follow the movements of the wrist and fingers via the connective tissue that connects the feathers to the skeleton. Scientists have developed a computer model of the movement performed by these members. This skeleton was then 3D printed and the scientists installed a pair of wings on which real feathers were attached using orthodontic elastics. And to propel PigeonBot, the scientists used a motorized propeller.

This prototype made of odds and ends is not yet perfect. The Stanford team now wants to perfect its drone, and already imagines that its work could have many applications in aeronautics. Will the 21st century finally see the advent of ornithopters?

[ad_2]