They design a drone with feathers that flies almost like a bird

Swiss engineers equip an unmanned aircraft with artificial plumage to gain resistance

Several engineers of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (Switzerland) have equipped a drone with artificial feathers to increase its accuracy during the flight. This bio-inspired device can close or open the wings to be more resistant, depending on each need for takeoff or landing.

When they have to change direction, increase speed or face the wind, birds alter the configuration of their wings. To turn, for example, they extend one wing and slightly retract the other. Adjusting their size in this way, they create a calculated imbalance that causes them to change direction. Until now, only birds could do this effectively.

After observing the birds in flight, the researchers of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory of this polytechnic school had the idea of ​​building an aircraft with low power wings and able to change the wingspan, flying at high speed and moving through the wings. narrow spaces. His research has just been published in the Interface Interface magazine of the Royal Society.

Dario Floreano and his team wanted to develop a bio-inspired unmanned aircraft that could meet various aerodynamic requirements. He had to be able to fly between obstacles, make tight turns and face strong winds. By changing the geometry of the wings in mid-flight, the unmanned aircraft can meet all the required criteria. The moving part is located on the outer wings. It works like the big feathers on the edge of the wing.

"We are inspired by birds: They can radically transform the size and shape of their wings because they have an articulated skeleton that is controlled by muscles and covered with feathers that overlap when the wings are folded," explained Matteo di Luca. The unmanned aircraft also has feathers that can be folded and overlapped like a fan.

One of the challenges was to design and build a complex mofrological mechanism that imitated nature to build the unmanned aircraft. "It is extremely difficult to find the right balance between aerodynamic efficiency and the weight of the device," explained Stefano Mintchev. The wing is composed mainly of composite materials in order to maximize the resistance while reducing the total weight.