Improving Flying Drones By Mimicking Flying Squirrels
1 min read
Summary
South Korean scientists have attempted to increase the agility of quadcopters by emulating the flight of flying squirrels.
The quadcopters have been fitted with patagium-like membranes between their rotors and a squirrel-like tail, which can be controlled to increase or decrease drag.
Machine learning was used to optimise the aerodynamic performance of the drones based on the manipulation of the membranes and rotational speed of the rotors, without the need for extensive flight-testing.
The drone fitted with the new Flying Squirrel tech was found to perform significantly better in obstacle avoidance tests than a standard quadcopter.
However, the technology does result in a trade-off with the drone’s overall speed and agility due to the extra weight.
