„Bat Bot“– a flying robot

Batman? – Nein, „Bat Bot“ ist ein fliegender Roboter, der einer Fledermaus nachempfunden ist.

„Bat Bot“– a flying robot

Scientists have long been captured by bats‘ unrivalledagility and manoeuvring characteristics. A new drone now mimicks the morphological properties of bat wings. The “Bat Bot” weighs only 93 grams and can do nosedives and fly tight curves. A group of researchers around Alireza Ramezani at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a self-contained robotic bat with soft, articulated wings. “Bats have the most sophisticated flight mechanism in the animal kingdom, a mechanism that involves more than 40 types of joints that interlock the bones and muscles. Their bones are flexible and can bend to make up a musculoskeletalsystem that is capable of movement in multiple independent directions. The scientists are attempting to reduce the complex flight motion of animals to their most important components, thus deviating considerably from the physical build of their live models. Bat Bot’s upper arms, for example, are driven by a slide bar; each arm can be moved independently. Its skeleton is made from carbon fibre and is covered with a skin of elastic, ultra-thin silicone-based membrane. A sensor attached to the robot’s chest measures positional change. Special instruments fixed to its elbows and hips register the angle of the limbs relative to the body. These data are used to control the drone. As a result the normal flight behaviour resembles that of a real bat with swift turns or dives, during which bats catch insects. Scientists continue to research flight properties of bats especially in situation when drones might collide with humans. Collision with light-weight bat robots are less prone to cause injuries compared to normal propeller-driven drones.

Vocabulary

Autor: P. Zillmer