In a beautiful example of biomimicry, researchers at Caltech and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed the Bat Bot, an autonomous flying robot with silicone wings that change shape as it flies, just like a real bat. From Caltech:
The Bat Bot weighs only 93 grams and is shaped like a bat with a roughly one-foot wingspan. It is capable of altering its wing shape by flexing, extending, and twisting at its shoulders, elbows, wrists, and legs. Arguably, bats have the most sophisticated powered flight mechanism among animals, which includes wings that have the capability of changing shape. Their flight mechanism involves several different types of joints that interlock the bones and muscles to one another, creating a musculoskeletal system that is capable of movement in more than 40 rotational directions.
"Our work demonstrates one of the most advanced designs to date of a self-contained flapping-winged aerial robot with bat morphology that is able to perform autonomous flight," (UIUC researcher Alireza) Ramezani says.
