New robot mimics flight mechanism of bats

New York (IANS): A new self-contained robot that mimics the key flight mechanisms of bats has been developed by scientists.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Caltech have developed Bat Bot (B2) with soft, articulated wings that can mimic the biological bats.

"Our work demonstrates one of the most advanced designs to date of a self-contained flapping-winged aerial robot with bat morphology that is able to perform autonomous flight," said Alireza Ramezani from the University of Illinois.

The robot weighs 93 grams, with dynamic wing articulations and wing conformations similar to those of biological bats.

The bats have a flight mechanism that involves more than 40 types of joints that interlock the bones and muscles to one another creating a musculoskeletal system that can change shape and is capable of movement in multiple independent directions, researchers said.

"We reduced those numbers to nine joints in the B2 robot. The compliant wings of a bat-like flapping robot flapping at lower frequencies are inherently safe," the study mentioned.