Flying robots reveal secrets about the aerial world of insects

A new winged robot with a special agility of fruit flies can provide an understanding of the flight of animals.

Scientists have wondered how these tiny pilots can make such sharp turns so quickly, but researchers cannot test all their ideas by tracking thugs. coincide or use a robot to connect to a computer.

A winged robot helps explain why flying insects are so difficult to catch.

Currently, an insect-inspired, free-flying robot , introduced on September 14 in Science, gave researchers an alternative. Programming robots with different flight control strategies and comparing its movement with flying animals can reveal techniques that winged insects and other creatures use to tumble. overhead.

This new robot can control fast turn or turn to the left or right - or move abruptly forward or backward - by adjusting the speed and angle of the wing. This robot is agile enough to fly about 25km / h and perform some aerobatic movements.

Matěj Karásek, a bio-inspired robotic researcher from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and colleagues used this robot to learn how the fruit flies make quick turns.

Researchers suspect that fruit flies cannot make such a stroke by deliberately turning right or left. Instead, the team thought that simply turning quickly to the side and suddenly moving forward or backward would help the insect turn in a proper direction.

Their tests with robots proved this hypothesis. When Karásek's team programed the robot to rotate and move abruptly, but not just giving it a left or right turn, the rounds of this robot are almost the same as the real fly's crab.

This flying robot can also help test the flight methods of other animals, like hummingbirds. Or it can be used for finding and rescuing tasks, building greenhouse tests or pollination.