Robot That Flies Like A Bird

Amazing engineering

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Reply to
Dave
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MTBF will be very high, probably less that the average lifespan of an actual bird.

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:42:32 -0600, Dave Balderstone

Argh, you're being too practical and missing the whole point. It's not that it's inefficient or has a high MTBF, it's that man has always tried to design something that can mimic a bird and now he can ~ practical applications be damned.

Reply to
Dave

flight, a dream for thousands of years, is now a reality. Practical? Who's to say when and how long, but thankfully practicality has little place in dreams.

Interesting that Festo was the parent company of Festool ... proving once again that German engineering is a force to be reckoned with.

About all the US excels in these days is social networking sites ...

Reply to
Swingman

And the following leading edge companies:

- Tesla Motors - Scaled Composites (now part of Lockmart) - SpaceX (et alia)

A couple of thousand bleeding edge startups.

The two companies with the largest market capitalizations in the world (Apple and Exxon).

scott

(Interesting factoid: GWB's AIG bailout was larger than the entire amount spent on the shuttle program over its entire 40 year span).

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

The obvious "why" is to confirm that we actually understand the mechanisms of bird flight.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Something doesn't appear to be correct with that video demonstration. Despite the weight of 1 pound and a wing span of 2 meters, the wing flaps don't appear to be fast enough, nor long enough. How does it control its turning and other maneuvers?

The different peoples' handling of the bird doesn't appear to be that which is required for something as large, relative to its little weight, i.e., very fragile. Another questionable demonstration of this idea is hinted at, within the 4:15 time of the video, in this link. In this link, outside, not indoors, a blonde headed girl's hair (about 2 minutes into the clip) and another girl's purple shirt (near the end) is blowing in the wind. If the wind is blowing that much, it would take this very light craft and blow it away, making it unable for it to control itself against that kind of wind force, in my opinion. Something just doesn't appear to be correct.

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that, it may not be so important if one makes a flying bird exactly like a real bird. The different technologies required would likely lead to other applications that may be more relevant in the practical world.

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

It's half the weight of a herring gull and with a third more wingspan. Why should it need to flap any more rapidly than a real bird?

The same way a real bird does?

It's carbon fiber. It may not be as fragile as you think.

And yet somehow the real birds manage to control themselves in that same wind.

Reply to
J. Clarke

That's pretty cool! It does seem that inadequate credit is given to the originator of the original design! : )

Bill

Reply to
Bill

bird that can even hover.

Reply to
Leon

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Reply to
Leon

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are videos of it on YouTube ... one is robobird, the other is pure poetry in motion. :)

Reply to
Swingman

sold as toys.

Reply to
Gerald Ross

Radio Shack sells battery operated remote control birds that flap to fly for $29

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"Gerald Ross" wrote in message news:v-mdnVAmBsf2rLbTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com... I saw wind-up birds that flew well in Japan 30+ years ago. They were sold as toys.

Reply to
m II

Odd enough birds were old hat at one University I know of and the research arm went on to insects. The physics of flight don't apply to insects - they are far more complex.

Size and power were overcome. Mart> On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:42:32 -0600, Dave Balderstone

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

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"Using" is too strong a word. It's a DARPA project which means it's research.

Reply to
J. Clarke

"Ornithopter" has been a category in AMA indoor competition for decades.

There was one made as a toy in France in the late 1800s.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Your wind up and battery operated toys do NOT mimic the mechanics of real birds. This new creation is much closer to that ideal than anything that's come before it.

Reply to
Dave

Josepi/Eric/'mII'/mHo/Bengi did not post the comment you rely on. The record should be as above. george

Reply to
George Watson

Walks like a duck!

They don't need to mimic the mechanism. He copied the mechanisms years after the toy manufacturers engineered it.

----------------- On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:44:10 -0400, "m II" wrote: Radio Shack sells battery operated remote control birds that flap to fly for $29

Reply to
m II

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