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Flapping-Wing Robotic Bird Successfully Performs Aerobatic Maneuvers

University of Maryland professors S. K. Gupta and Hugh Bruck have created a robotic bird named Robo Raven, whose wings flap completely independently of each other and can be programmed to perform any desired motion - enabling it to perform aerobatic maneuvers. This is the first time a robotic bird with these capabilities has been built and successfully flown. Gupta and Bruck first successfully demonstrated a flapping-wing bird in 2007. This robot used one motor to flap both wings together in simple motions. By 2010 the design had evolved over four successive models, but the limitation of simultaneous wing flapping restricted how well it could fly. Their new Robo Raven "uses two programmable motors that can be synchronized electronically to coordinate motion between the wings," says Gupta. Because the two actuators required a large battery and on-board micro controller that made Robo Raven too heavy to fly, the team also used 3D printing and laser-cutting to create lightweight polymer parts.

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    Transcript

    00:00:05 our goal is to create a robotic bird that can do things which have never been done [Music] before real birds are able to precisely control their wing motions and this enables them to do very impressive aerob [Music] bearings accomplishing this in robotic bird has been very difficult because

    00:00:33 this makes them too heavy to [Music] fly with Robo Raven we can digitally control each Wing independently now Robo Raven can generate any desired aerodynamic Force for aerobatics just like real birds [Music] now that we have complete control over each Wing I can program the wings to do

    00:01:06 almost anything that a real bird can do in a matter of minutes I me we've gotten it to do Dives even back flips We've Only Just Begun to see what this thing can really [Music] do acrobatic Maneuvers require an extremely lightweight platform so we designed geometrically intricate 3D printed Parts using lightweight

    00:01:33 [Music] materials in Balance by Design we purposely take ideas from nature but we never expected to reach a level of realism where other birds actually start following our bird and we even got attacked by a hawk which was pretty [Music] awesome this is just the beginning possibilities are virtually

    00:01:57 endless [Music] [Music]