A group of researchers from the University of Oxford is developing small aerial vehicles with flapping wings inspired by those found on insects. The researchers envision that their insect-size vehicles will be suitable for many different purposes ranging from helping in emergency situations considered too dangerous for people to enter, to covert military surveillance missions…. »

Engineers at Harvard University have created a millionth-scale automobile differential to govern the flight of minuscule aerial robots. Their new approach is the first to passively balance the aerodynamic forces encountered by these miniature flying devices, letting their wings flap asymmetrically in response to gusts of wind, wing damage, and other real-world impediments. “The drivetrain… »

To be honest, we skipped writing about the Solar Impulse HB-SIA airplane because we waited for a bit more exciting news (compared to previous tests performed on the ground). The Solar Impulse is a revolutionary concept which is envisioned in order to push back the limits of our knowledge in the field of materials, energy… »

From flies to fish to lobsters, small insects and animals have long been ideal models for robotic and computer scientists. Bees, for example, possess unmatched elegance in flight, zipping from flower to flower with ease and hovering stably with heavy payloads. A multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, and biologists at Harvard received a 10… »

The students which made RoboSwift based the project on the findings of their supervisor, David Lentink of Wageningen University. In April 2007, with several co-authors he published a about the aerodynamic properties of the swift. During its lifetime, single swift flies a distance comparable to five roundtrips to the Moon and can remain in the… »

Insects’ agility in flight is unmatched. It’s been an inspiration to many inventors as in inventing helicopters or other flying machines. Instead creating robots which resemble insects, a few groups of engineers decided to develop technology which controls insects. An unquestioned fact is that nature developed the insects far better than humans are trying to… »

Folks from German company Festo keep creating bionic marine animals which float in air. Penguins are fascinating creatures which have lost their ability to fly in the course of their genetic development as marine birds, but Festo engineers  managed to create an artificial penguin and taught it “autonomous flight in the sea of air”. Named… »