Drones have taken the market by storm, but beyond the wide range of options, the available models share very similar characteristics. In other words, they are rigid vehicles with four or six motors, inspired by helicopters. However, a group of researchers at the EPFL in Switzerland have created a new drone variant inspired by birds, with a skeleton, artificial feathers, and the ability to alter the shape of its wings depending on aerodynamic demands.
If you want to learn something, the first step is to observe how nature does it, and when it comes to flying, some birds still give us lessons. Now, I don't intend to belittle our spectacular achievements, but the first mistake is to think we already know everything. Most airplanes have relatively rigid structures, although the concept of variable geometry has been around in the industry for many years. Birds do something similar, and at the same time much more advanced. After all, flying has a gigantic energy demand, so efficiency is not a goal but an obligation. What can we extract from that?
According to a group of researchers at the EPFL in Switzerland, the answer is the movement of the wings and the feathers. Their work focused on creating a drone equipped with wings that extend or contract just like the wings of birds when they change direction or seek to increase speed. Part of the solution came through artificial feathers that combine carbon fiber, fiberglass, and nylon. The fact of 'bending' the wings implies greater complexity in the design, as well as a higher energy requirement, and an increase in weight, but the benefits are not far behind. With artificial feathers and variable wings, the drone gets much more maneuverability than we find in traditional products.
Unfortunately, we don't have technical information such as size, final weight, or flight time, and for the moment the drone is just a prototype, but this changes several rules. The demand for drones that can fly faster and with greater precision in confined spaces exists, and perhaps the answer lies in this design.
