Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed and demonstrated a new flying robot which flaps its wings completely independently of each other. Dubbed Robo Raven, the robot can be programmed to perform any desired motion, enabling the bird to perform aerobatic maneuvers. This is the first time a robotic bird with these capabilities has… »

Birds routinely land on small surfaces, using wing morphing and flapping techniques. The UC San Diego engineers, led by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Tom Bewley and graduate student Kim Wright, analyzed slow motion videos of birds landing to generate a working hypotheses for how biomimicry of wing morphing and flapping can be used for… »

Inspired by the herring gull flight, the engineers of Festo’s Bionic Learning Network came up with SmartBird – an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. It is capable to take off autonomously and lift-up in the air by means of its flapping wings alone, without the aid of other… »

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… »

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… »