BionicSwift Robot Bird fFlying With Artificial Feathers

Festo researchers announced the creation of a new bionic project called "BionicSwift". The robot bird can use artificial feathers to fly. The researchers used indoor radio-based GPS and ultra-wideband technology to model the feathers of real birds, allowing mechanical birds to fly safely in a coordinated mode within prescribed airspace.

The core structure of the robot bird adopts a lightweight structure. Low weight is important because the smaller the weight moved faster and the less material is required. BionicSwift weighs 42 grams, has a body length of 44.5 cm and a wingspan of 68 cm. The designer said that this ratio makes the bird can fly in a circle and make right turns. The designer created as close as possible to the natural wings of the BionicSwift model. The individual sheets are made very light and flexible but very strongly, overlapping each other. The feather is attached to a carbonaceous blade then attached to the actual wings. When punching on the wings, the slices will fan out, and then they will close when punching, providing the flying robot with more powerful flying capabilities.

The designer said that the approximate reproduction of the design of the actual bird wings makes BionicSwift's flight performance better than the previous wing drive. Inside the body of the robot bird, there are mechanical devices, communication technology, control components, tail, brushless motor, two servo systems, batteries, gear units and various circuit boards required by the wing fan mechanism.

The flight of the mechanical bird is coordinated by using radio-based indoor GPS and ultra-wideband technology. The team installed multiple radio modules in the space, forming fixed anchor points, positioning each other and defining controlled airspace. The system can use pre-programmed paths to plan and determine bird routes. The robot bird can autonomously correct the flight path without human input. this robot bird very agile and flexible.