Raptor-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail

Raptor-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail
Enrico Ajanic with the raptor-inspired drone developped at EPFL. Credit: 2020 EPFL/Alain Herzog

The northern goshawk is a fast, powerful raptor that flies effortlessly through forests. This bird was the design inspiration for the next-generation drone developed by scientists of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems of EPFL, led by Dario Floreano. They carefully studied the shape of the bird's wings and tail and its flight behavior, and used that information to develop a drone with similar characteristics.

"Goshawks move their wings and tails in tandem to carry out the desired motion, whether it is rapid changes of direction when hunting in forests, fast when chasing prey in the open terrain, or when efficiently gliding to save energy," says Enrico Ajanic, the first author and Ph.D. student in Floreano's lab. And Floreano adds "Our design extracts principles of avian agile flight to create a that can approximate the flight performance of raptors, but also tests the biological hypothesis that a morphing tail plays an important role in achieving faster turns, decelerations, and even slow flight".

A drone that moves its wings and tail

The engineers first designed a bird-inspired drone with a morphing back in 2016. In a step forward, their new model can adjust the shape of its wing and tail thanks to its artificial feathers. "It was fairly complicated to design and build these mechanisms, but we were able to improve the wing so that it behaves more like that of a goshawk," says Ajanic. "Now that the drone includes a feathered tail that morphs in synergy with the wing, it delivers unparalleled agility."

The drone changes the shape of its wing and tail to change direction faster, fly slower without falling to the ground, and reduce air resistance when flying fast. It uses a propeller for forward thrust instead of flapping wings because it is more efficient and makes the new wing and tail system applicable to other winged drones and airplanes.

Video in which the study's authors discuss the design of their hawk-inspired robot and the implications of their research. (2:01) Credit: EPFL

The advantage of winged drones over quadrotor designs is that they have a longer flight time for the same weight. However, quadrotors tend to have greater dexterity, as they can hover in place and make sharp turns. "The drone we just developed is somewhere in the middle. It can fly for a long time yet is almost as agile as quadrotors," says Floreano. This combination of features is especially useful for flying in forests or in cities between buildings.

  • Raptor-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail
    The drone. Credit: 2020 EPFL/Alain Herzog
  • Raptor-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail
    Avian-inspired wing and tail morphing. Credit: Ajanic et al., Sci Robot. 5, eabc2897 (2020)

Opportunities for artificial intelligence

Flying this new type of drone isn't easy, due to the large number of wing and configurations possible. To take full advantage of the drone's flight capabilities, Floreano's team plans to incorporate into the drone's flight system so that it can fly semi-automatically. The team's research has been published in Science Robotics.

Video demonstrating wing and tail morphing of the hawk-inspired flying robot. Credit: Ajanic et al., Sci Robot. 5, eabc2897 (2020)


Video of the hawk-inspired flying robot cruising and performing aggressive turns and dives. Credit: Ajanic et al., Sci Robot. 5, eabc2897 (2020)

Video showing the construction of the morphing tail – attaching artificial feathers to a wrist mechanism. Credit: Ajanic et al., Sci Robot. 5, eabc2897 (2020)

More information: E. Ajanic el al., "Bioinspired wing and tail morphing extends drone flight capabilities," Science Robotics (2020). robotics.sciencemag.org/lookup … /scirobotics.abc2897

Journal information: Science Robotics
Citation: Raptor-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail (2020, October 28) retrieved 19 March 2024 from https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-raptor-inspired-drone-morphing-wing-tail.html
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