Unraveling a Butterfly's Aerial Antics Could Help Builders of Bug-Size Flying Robots
ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2012) —
To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns
Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of
the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies
flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers
hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers.
U.S. defense agencies, which have funded this research, are supporting
the development of bug-size flyers to carry out reconnaissance,
search-and-rescue and environmental monitoring missions without risking
human lives. These devices are commonly called micro aerial vehicles or
MAVs.
The butterfly
research will aid the development of flying bug-size robots. Pictured is
an insect-inspired flapping-wing micro air vehicle under development at
Harvard. (Credit: Robert J. Wood, associate professor, and Pratheev
Sreetharan, Harvard Microrobotics Lab, Harvard University.)
MORE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120202151608.htm
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