Bat Bot: Scientists from Caltech and UIUC Invent a Bat-Like Flying Robot
Bats, with their unrivaled dexterity and maneuvering characteristics, have always captured the desirability for scientists, and a team of US-based researchers has successfully framed this original structure of bat in a drone. In simple words, a team of researchers has developed a robotic drone which flights the replicated features and looks of a Bat. The robotic drone is capable of mimicking the biological bats.
A team of engineers from US-based California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has invented a programmable flying drone that impersonates the flight individuality of the real bats. The path-breaking self-governed robotic bat is designed with spongy and articulated wings that are capable of mimicking the pivotal flight characteristics of the actual flying Bats. With the functional, adaptable, and dynamic side, the bats used to enjoy vibrant and passionate flights in the air and these individualities of bats have attracted the scientists to replicate it with an automated drone.
However, up to now, because of the extreme flexibility and multifaceted arm kinematics, the robot modeling of real bats have turned out to be a tough technological challenge for scientists. But with the technical expertise, the researchers from Caltech and UIUC have succeeded in developing, modeling, planning, and controlling the robotic bat-like drone. The developers have named the new bat-like robot as “Bat Bot (B2)”.
According to the brains behind this development, the design of the Bat-Bot (B2) can be applied for investigatory projects. In the missions, where the traditional quadrotor drones run into the objects or people, resulting in damage or wound to them, the automated Bat Bot can be efficiently used. The robotic bat, itself contains malleable and articulated wings which enable it to take to the air easily. Weighing 93g, B2 has a 1ft wingspan. It is also capable of altering the shape of its wings, following the demands of the situation. The articulations of its active wing and arm conformations are comparable to those of biological bats.
The development project of Bat Bot was co-led by the engineering and applied science been academic Soon-Jo Chung from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Alireza Ramezani and Seth Hutchinson from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
