By the crazy German mad scientists at Festo.
SmartBird is an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds – one of the oldest dreams of humankind.
This bionic technology-bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously – with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive unit, which in combination with a complex control system attains an unprecedented level of efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in creating an energy-efficient technical adaptation of this model from nature.
[Via Tinkernology]
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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net
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Incredible work. Now all it needs is the ability to drop it’s waste on selected targets :)
Gosh! This made me laugh like crazy :D
As far as I know about our current state of technology, the only practical use for the Ornithopter Drone appears to be domestic espionage. I predict rednecks will be shooting these things out of the sky, over marijuana crops in the Appalachians.
omg have you heard the word…………..?
As mentioned in Zero History.
That is freaking awesome. Nothing else to be said about it.
great job keep up the good work
Brilliant.!!
Pretty interesting. Here are two uses I can think of:
1. old fashioned covert messaging. One of these could fly with a flock to go undetected to deliver a small payload safely.
2. I wonder if these can scare off birds that take up residence in large buildings with high ceilings, such as warehouses, big box stores and large supermarkets. kind of like the plastic owl idea but a whole lot more realistic.
i can see this thing being stolen by the military
I can see this thing being purchased legally by the military
Yes, but will it lay eggs?
wow….flying robot bird
I’d shoot it out of the sky if i saw its ass in my neighborhood.