Prototype wing
technology inspired by bats
(February 19, 2016) Scientists
have developed prototype bat wings that could be used in the next generation of
unmanned micro air vehicles (MAVs).
MAVs are increasingly being used in a wide variety of
civilian applications such as surveying remote and dangerous areas. However,
one of the current drawbacks with this technology is that designers have to
choose between fixed-wings, which enable long range flight, or rotary-wings,
which enable high manoeuvrability.
Now a team of researchers from Imperial College London and
the University of Southampton have developed bat-inspired wings that are made
from a polymer membrane and artificial muscles, which means they can be
flexible in their configuration. The team say the advantage of this is that it
may enable MAVs to be both manoeuvrable and also able to fly over longer
distances, making running them and their production more economical.
The team modelled
air flowing over a bat-inspired wings
Similar to bats, the prototype wings can change their shape
in response to different forces they experience in the air, such as turbulence.
The wings incorporate polymers that are activated when an electric current runs
through them. This makes the wings stiffen and relax in response, which helps
them to contort to the environment they are flying through. This technology
uses no mechanical parts, making the wings easier for engineers to maintain.
The bat wings have been developed through a combination of
computational modelling research at Imperial and hands-on experimental work at
Southampton.