Watch Festo HQ team‘s new dragonfly-inspired BionicOpter:
With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.
In addition to control of the shared flapping frequency and twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings also features an amplitude controller. The tilt of the wings determines the direction of thrust. Amplitude control allows the intensity of the thrust to be regulated. When combined, the remote-controlled dragonfly can assume almost any position in space.
There are more videos and explanation here. And if you haven’t seen them yet, there are more great videos to check out from Festo in the archives, aqua and air penguins, jellyfish, and rays, as well as the TEDTalk, A robot that flies like a bird.
via Colossal.
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