A team of engineers in Purdue University’s Bio-Robotics Lab have developed an impressively agile flying robot, modeled after the hummingbird. Here’s how it works, and why its creators think that it could prove to be a useful addition to future search and rescue missions.
In West Lafayette, Indiana, the renowned ornithologist Xinyan Deng stretches out her hand to serve as a platform for a magnificent turquoise and dark green hummingbird. It hovers just above her palm, wings beating rapidly to keep it airborne, but otherwise remaining perfectly stationary. Although several types of bird can hover in this way, it’s something hummingbirds are extraordinarily talented at. They are even capable of hovering at a flower in a gusty wind, continually adjusting their position so as to remain next to their target. Which is one of the reasons Deng is so interested in them.
Except that we’re lying. Well, kind of. Professor Xinyan Deng is not a renowned ornithologist. She’s an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Purdue University’s Bio-Robotics Lab, a laboratory that’s dedicated to building the next generation of robots inspired by nature. And Deng’s hummingbird is not a real flesh-and-blood hummingbird. It’s an impressive robotic reproduction of the real thing: not only the same size, shape, and (thanks to a specially designed body cover) appearance as its inspiration, but also capable of many of the same feats — hovering very much included. While it currently has to be tethered to the ground to provide power and stability, the team responsible for creating it is excited that they may have finally cracked one of the natural world’s most unusual modes of flying.
“[The] hummingbird is a unique species whose size is in between insects and other birds,” Deng told Digital Trends. “Summer is coming and you can see them in your backyard hovering, dashing, and chasing one another. They can hover like insects [using] high-frequency beating wings, and they can also fly acrobatically like birds by actively morphing their wings.
