Gliding Like a Grasshopper

Many biorobots are built after flies and bees–insects that rely heavily on flapping flight. For small robots, this means carrying heavy batteries or remaining tethered in order to power their motors. Instead, researchers have turned to grasshoppers for a lesson in small-scale gliding.

Grasshoppers have two sets of wings. The forward set provide protection and camouflage, while the hindwings are used to fly. The team studied the corrugated, foldable hindwings of the American grasshopper, then 3D-printed model wing designs and attached them to gliders. They found that the corrugated wings performed well at low angles of attack, but that non-corrugated wings–which still shared the outline and camber of the insect’s wings–were more efficient gliders over a range of conditions.

The team hopes that their grasshopper-inspired gliders give insect-like biorobots more efficient flying options. (Image credit: Princeton/S. Khan/Fotobuddy; research credit: K. Lee et al.; via Physics World)

Flying Without a Rudder

Aircraft typically use a vertical tail to keep the craft from rolling or yawing. Birds, on the other hand, maneuver their wings and tail feathers to counter unwanted motions. Researchers found that the list of necessary adjustments is quite small: just 4 for the tail and 2 for the wings. Implementing those 6 controllable degrees of freedom on their bird-inspired PigeonBot II allowed the biorobot to fly steadily, even in turbulent conditions, without a rudder. Adapting such flight control to the less flexible surfaces of a typical aircraft will take time and creativity, but the savings in mass and drag could be worth it. (Image credit: E. Chang/Lentink Lab; research credit: E. Chang et al.; via Physics Today)

#biology #biorobotics #birdFlight #birds #flightControl #fluidDynamics #physics #science #turbulence

@meltedcheese Thank you!

That's an interesting question.

For my research I'll be quantifying the hydrodynamic properties and locomotor #biomechanics of #Spinosaurus using a digital musculoskeletal model, predictive simulations, and then eventually #biorobotics informed by this data.

I'm not sure if the bones of #dinosaurs have made it into any practical applications yet, but there are studies on how #pterosaur bones can inform material design!

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/fossilised-pterosaur-bones-offer-insights-into-new-materials

Swimming Like a Ray

Manta rays are amazing and efficient swimmers — a necessity for any large animal that survives on tiny plankton. Researchers have built a new soft robot inspired by swimming mantas. Like its biological inspiration, the robot flaps its pectoral fins much as bird flaps its wings; this motion creates vortices that push water behind the robot, propelling it forward. For a downstroke, air inflates the robot’s body cavity, pushing the fins downward. When that air is released, its fins snap back up. With this simple and energy efficient stroke, researchers are able to control the robot’s swimming speed and depth, allowing it to maneuver around obstacles. Flapping faster helps the robot surface, and slower flapping allows it to sink. (Living manta rays also sink if they slow down.) Check out the robot in action below. (Image credit: J. Lanoy; video and research credit: H. Qing et al.; via Ars Technica)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXB9Ip7qa0o

#biology #biophysics #biorobotics #flapping #fluidDynamics #mantaRay #physics #science #swimming

Just like human swimmers, microswimmers have to coordinate their motion to swim. But unlike humans, swimmers like the freshwater alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii doesn’t have a brain to help it synchronize its cilia. To investigate how these microswimmers manage their stroke, researchers built a biorobot with mechanically linked segments that mimic the alga’s swimming once a motor sets the robot vibrating.

The researchers found two strokes that mirrored the real-life alga. In one, allowing the robot’s base to rotate produced a freestyle-like stroke they called R-mode. The other came from allowing the robot’s base to move forward and backward, which created a breaststroke-like X-mode. In the wild, only the X-mode provides helpful motion, but, oddly enough, the researchers found this mode was the most energy intensive. (Image credit: top – J. Larson, others – Y. Xia et al.; research credit: Y. Xia et al.; via APS Physics)

https://fyfluiddynamics.com/2024/09/synchronizing-cilia/

#biology #biorobotics #fluidDynamics #microswimmer #physics #science #synchronization

A Robot Face with Human Skin https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/a-robot-face-with-human-skin/ #softrobotics #RobotsHacks #biorobotics #biomimetic #biomimicry #humanoid #Science #robot

Join our FRIAS Conference bringing together nature and technology 22.11-24.11 at @unifreiburg

Abstracts can be submitted until September 29. More information: https://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/de/veranstaltungen/nachwuchskonferenzen/FRoBio

#cfa #bioinspiration #biomimetics #biohybrid #neurorobotics #biologymeetsengeneering #biorobotics #cfa #callforposters #neuralnetworks #machinelearning #engineering #conference

Demos nearly ready for my poster presentation at #SICB2023 ! Come to P2-227 tomorrow (Thursday) 430-530 PM to play with these #ComparativeBiomechanics #dynamics #biorobotics