Scientists and engineers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland are developing an “uncrewed aerial vehicle”, aka a drone, with fixed wings and bird-inspired legs.
Most drones are powered by four rotary wings and can take off and land from just about any surface, but they are not the most energy efficient way to fly. Fixed wing aircraft are more energy efficient and can fly for longer, but they need a runway for take-offs and landings.
A team of scientists and engineers in Switzerland have taken inspiration from the way birds are able to take off and land without runways, and can also move about on the ground when they are not flying. They have built a small flying robot with fixed wings and a bird-like undercarriage that can hop, walk and jump on the ground, and launch itself into the air with a jumping action like real bird.
The research team studied the structure of bird legs and designed robot legs with moveable joints and energy storing springs that can efficiently propel the craft into the air. The robot has been named RAVEN, for Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments. Won Dong Shin, one of the engineers, explained: “The RAVEN robot can walk, hop over obstacles, and do a jumping take-off like real birds.”
The research hope to develop their robot for use in search and rescue missions, where it could land and manoeuvre in difficult terrain.
Dario Floreano, of the EPFL’s School of Engineering, who led the project, commented: “Avian wings are the equivalent of front legs in terrestrial quadrupeds, but little is known about the coordination of legs and wings in birds — not to mention drones. These results represent just a first step towards a better understanding of design and control principles of multimodal flying animals, and their translation into agile and energetically efficient drones.”
He also commented: “Translating avian legs and feet into a lightweight robotic system presented us with design, integration, and control problems that birds have solved elegantly over the course of evolution.”
References: Ars Technica 6 December 2024; Interesting Engineering 5 December 2024; ScienceDaily 6 December 2024; Nature 4 December 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08228-9; Nature video.
Editorial Comment: The project is a good reminder that flying involves more than just having wings. A flying animal needs to be able to take off and land and move about on the ground or in a tree. As the lead engineer stated, there are design, integration and control problems that must be understood and solved before anything can fly autonomously. This team of scientists and engineers solved these by using their built-in intelligence to carefully study the way birds do this, and then make a simple copy using creative design and clever manipulation of suitable materials.
They rightly deserve praise for their achievement, but in spite of their intelligence they are fools if they really believe the same results came about by mindless random evolution, or that half-evolved birds “elegantly” solved the problem of suitable take-off and landing gear by themselves. This research team should be giving praise to the Creator who made fully functioning birds with all their body parts well designed and integrated together, ready for take off and landing and everything in between.
One day all scientists and engineers who have taken inspiration from living things will have to face their Creator. If they have given the credit for the living things they studied to a false god named evolution this will be a terrifying experience. We urge you to come to the Creator, who is Jesus Christ, while you are still in this world, and it will be a joyous experience to meet the One who made the original Very Good world and will create a New Heavens and Earth for us to enjoy forever.
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Creation Research News 18 December 2024