Back in 2018, we heard how UK startup Volerian was planning to build a VTOL aircraft with a unique flapping-wing propulsion system. Although we've yet to see a functioning model of that vehicle, the ...

Bio-inspired wind sensing using strain sensors on flexible wings could revolutionize robotic flight control strategy. Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo have developed a method to detect wind ...

We've seen autonomous MAVs (micro air vehicles) before, and we've seen flapping-wing MAVs before. According to a group of researchers from the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology, however, ...

Secondly, authors decoupled and analyzed the complex coupled wing movements into 5 kinematic parameters: flapping, twisting, sweeping, folding, and bending. A wing model was constructed to conduct ...

Birds fly more efficiently by folding their wings during the upstroke, according to a recent study. The results could mean that wing-folding is the next step in increasing the propulsive and ...

It’s not very common that a robot the size of a paper clip is able to do ten flips in eleven seconds and keep on course within five centimeters, says Markus Waibel of Waibel Robotics in Zurich. But ...

An insect-scale robot from MIT performs agile flight maneuvers using a neural-network controller, surpassing previous ...

The secret to the flight of the hummingbird and other tiny birds and insects lies in the looping, swirling flow of air, called a vortex, that their flapping wings create. These aerodynamically ...

The flying abilities of one of the world's fastest birds has been used as the inspiration to create a new drone prototype, scientists say. Based on the aerobatic maneuvers of the swift, an ...

Quadcopters? Please, those are so 2012. This ultralight ornithopter uses four flapping wings to get off the ground. The best part? Most of it can be fabricated using consumer 3-D printers. The ...