(May 19, 2015) The
U.S. Navy has found that it pays to listen to Rolf Mueller carry on about his
bat research. From unmanned aerial systems to undersea communications,
practical applications flow from the team headed by Mueller, an associate
professor of mechanical engineering.
Learning how bats navigate through dense thickets without
crashing into each other could also help unmanned aircraft designers create
better delivery vehicles, Mueller says.
Mueller's work is supported in part by the Institute for
Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech as well as the U.S.
Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command, in Newport, Rhode Island.