Butterfly Ornithopters In Slow-Mo
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 30 of December , 2008 at 3:16 pm
Back in July we wrote about the DelFly, a fully controllable micro air vehicle equipped with camera that weighs all of 3 grams. Researchers in Japan are working on a slightly smaller ornithopter that tips the scales (or doesn’t) at 0.39 grams, using flapping wings modeled on a butterfly with a rubber band as a battery. It’s not quite as sophisticated as the DelFly, but the biological inspired design is, if I may say so, rather beautiful. Using high speed video, the designers have determined that the most efficient wings for forward flight are wings with micromolded veins (for stability) flapping at 10 beats per second. My guess is that they will find that the closer the wings are modeled on those of an actual butterfly, the more efficient flight will become. And yes, that absolutely means an awesome paint job.
VIA [ Smart Machines ]
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Category: Biorobotics, Research
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