"Bat Bot" Mimics Complexity of Bat Flight

Using a custom-made silicon skin and articulated morphing wings, researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created Bat Bot (B2), an autonomous flying robot that successfully mimics the flight characteristics of real bats. The Bat Bot weighs only 93 grams and has a roughly one-foot wingspan. It can alter its wing shape by flexing, extending, and twisting at its shoulders, elbows, wrists, and legs. Bats have the most sophisticated powered flight mechanism among animals, which includes wings that have the capability of changing shape. Their flight mechanism involves several different types of joints that interlock the bones and muscles to one another, creating a musculoskeletal system that is capable of movement in more than 40 rotational directions.

Transcript

00:00:01 inspired by agility and manuvering characteristic of bat flight I have teamed up with my colleagues at the University of Illinois Bar champagne Professor Seth Hutchinson and Dr ala Rami Jani we have created batb B2 a fully self-contained autonomous flying lot that weighs 93 G to mimic such morphological properties of bad Wings we Implement High highly

00:00:30 stretchable silicon-based membrane Wing that are controlled at a reduced number of dominant Wing joints to best match characteristics of bat flight The Continuous surface and elastic properties of bat skin are realized with a customade ultra thin 56 microns membrane Wings our batb B2 has onboard computer and several sensors for performing

00:00:59 autonomous flight control and navigation in its environment the brushless DC motor drives a crankshaft mechanism a sophisticated inertial measurement unit or IMU measures angular weights and acceleration data acquisition unit records sensor data and commands the microactuators so we have five magnetic encoders located at the elbows hip joints and shoulder joints to read the

00:01:28 relative angles between the limb with respect to the body each Wing actuator which is composed of a planetary gear hat a spinder drive and DC gear motor produces the required linear motion we have identified five dominant motions of the bat flight and implemented those into the design of B2 in a indoor environment B2 robot has successfully performed straight flight up to 30 m

00:02:01 the main wing of the B2 is supported by two independent Wing foring joints B2 performs turning maneuver by independently controlling the foring Motions of the left and the right [Music] wing B2 tail legs can be controlled independently sharp diving maneuver performed by bass when they pursue their prey was reconstructed by moving the

00:02:31 hind limbs or legs from kch I'm Professor sunj Chong