Bat Bot, The New-Generation Drone
Recently engineers at Caltech and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reportedly have developed a robotic bat. Accordingly, the creation is called Bat Bot, a robotic bat with soft, flappable wings. It is said to be not only a safer alternative to having drones fly, but also teach scientists the mechanics involved in a natural bat flight.
According to Science News, the new flying robot can be considered as an acrobat that can do fancy flight tricks. Reportedly, Bat Bot is a lightweight flier with thin silicone wings stretched over a carbon fiber skeleton. And just like the natural bat, it can cruise, dive and bank. It is further said that this highly maneuverable invention can be used to ascend lofty structures of a construction site to help in tracking building erection progress.
Furthermore, it is described that the Bat Bot is a versatile flyer, weighs 93 grams, and has a wingspan of 47 centimeters. It is apparently being just roughly the size of an Egyptian fruit bat. Accordingly the scientists also duplicated 9 key joints out of the 40 wing joints of a natural bat wing so that the robot could synchronize the flapping of its wings, fold each wing independently, and move each of its posterior legs up and down.
The New Atlas, in its recent report said that one of the researchers commented that the invention is one of the most advanced design of a winged aerial flapping machine that can perform autonomous flight. Accordingly, reconstruction of the wings proved to be a challenge since the thin, flexible wings of a natural bat change shape constantly during flight. Apparently, the researchers were not able to find an existing material to recreate bat wings, so a silicone-based membrane measuring just 56 microns thick was developed to complete the task.
Reportedly, the wing made of the newly developed membrane require much less energy as compared to the system used by current drones to stay in the air. Positively speaking, the soft-winged Bat Bots are definitely useful in areas where a sharp and spinning rotor could hurt people or damage objects.
