Title: RC Hummingbird Flys
Description: prototype flapping-wing nano air vehicle
Description: prototype flapping-wing nano air vehicle
alvinonline - July 5, 2009 08:41 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (AeroVironment) |
This is a vehicle that, under its own power and remote control, demonstrated it could use a pair of flapping wings for both propulsion and flight control, climbing, descending and flying forwards, backwards and sidewards in the hover. The next step gets tougher, AV has to shrink the vehicle's size and weight, extend its endurance and demonstrate transition between vertical and forward flight and back again. The prototype NAV is to be small enough to sit in the operator's hand and will closely resemble its biological inspiration, the hummingbird. |
Flying Dutchman - July 6, 2009 02:59 PM (GMT)
Check out the video at the end!
Darpa's First Robotic Ornithopter Hovers, Flies Like a Hummingbird
The creepy, tiny wing-flapping UAV, designed for indoor flight, is modelled on hummingbirds
By Anna Maria Jakubek, Posted 07.02.2009 at 3:14 pm. Popular Science.
A few years from now, bird-watchers may be in for a double take: that flapping creature in the distance? Nope, not a bird. Mutant dragon fly? Nope — t's Darpa's latest unmanned aerial robo-sentinel, inspired by the flight mechanics of birds.
The tech company Aerovironment recently won a $2.1 million contract to further their work on the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV). One of many progressive projects from Darpa (the Pentagon's advanced-research unit), the NAV is the first-ever "controlled hovering flight of an air vehicle system with two flapping wings that carries its own energy source and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control," says Aerovironment.
In the future, Darpa plans to use the teeny NAV for secret indoor and outdoor government missions, like dropping off listening devices and other cargo, and transmiting sound and video to locations as far as a kilometer away.
The above tasks are, presumably, ones that any small air vehicle could take on--which raises a question: cool factor aside, how is the ornithopter better than any run-of-the-mill tiny helicopter? According to Darpa, the advantages lie in something called the Reynolds number, a measurement of airborne efficiency that is lower (and technologically better) for flying creatures (like hummingbirds) compared to regular aircraft.
Aerovironment plans to make the next batch of birds smaller (10 grams and 7.5 cm), faster (22 mph), quieter, and more wind-resistant.
Here are some of the test flights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cov7-XWUa18 :thumbup:
Darpa's First Robotic Ornithopter Hovers, Flies Like a Hummingbird
The creepy, tiny wing-flapping UAV, designed for indoor flight, is modelled on hummingbirds
By Anna Maria Jakubek, Posted 07.02.2009 at 3:14 pm. Popular Science.
A few years from now, bird-watchers may be in for a double take: that flapping creature in the distance? Nope, not a bird. Mutant dragon fly? Nope — t's Darpa's latest unmanned aerial robo-sentinel, inspired by the flight mechanics of birds.
The tech company Aerovironment recently won a $2.1 million contract to further their work on the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV). One of many progressive projects from Darpa (the Pentagon's advanced-research unit), the NAV is the first-ever "controlled hovering flight of an air vehicle system with two flapping wings that carries its own energy source and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control," says Aerovironment.
In the future, Darpa plans to use the teeny NAV for secret indoor and outdoor government missions, like dropping off listening devices and other cargo, and transmiting sound and video to locations as far as a kilometer away.
The above tasks are, presumably, ones that any small air vehicle could take on--which raises a question: cool factor aside, how is the ornithopter better than any run-of-the-mill tiny helicopter? According to Darpa, the advantages lie in something called the Reynolds number, a measurement of airborne efficiency that is lower (and technologically better) for flying creatures (like hummingbirds) compared to regular aircraft.
Aerovironment plans to make the next batch of birds smaller (10 grams and 7.5 cm), faster (22 mph), quieter, and more wind-resistant.
Here are some of the test flights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cov7-XWUa18 :thumbup:
rescue911j1 - July 8, 2009 12:28 AM (GMT)
Got to have one of those. :newstuff:
Johnny_J - July 8, 2009 03:38 AM (GMT)
That's cool! I bet that would be expensive to own.
I have an ornithopter that me and Mat never built yet.
Maybe I'll do that this week! :thumbup:
I have an ornithopter that me and Mat never built yet.
Maybe I'll do that this week! :thumbup:
Russell flying Tigers - July 17, 2009 07:05 PM (GMT)
In the movie called ( Clash of the Titans) they had a mechanical owl. That was neat.