New insights into hummingbird anatomy could soon change the way aerial drones are designed.
, however, much of what is understood about the birds’ movements is drawn largely from flight activity observances in both real-life and artificial environments.
That comparatively limited knowledge has been greatly expanded upon by researchers at Penn State University recently “reverse engineered”to provide some of the best details yet regarding the tiny avian animals’ movements. Now, a wealth of new information is becoming available for designers of the next generation of drones.
To inform their new modeling method, the team utilized a combination of preexisting anatomy literature, computational fluid dynamics simulation data, and wing movement captured via micro-CT and X-ray scans. They then combined this copious information with what’s known as a genetic algorithm, an optimization program based on evolutionary strategies, to gain novel insights into some of hummingbirds’ most delicate facets of flight.
“They tighten their wings in the pitch and up-down directions but keep the wing loose along the back-and-forth direction, so their wings appear to be flapping back and forth only while their power muscles, or their flight engines, are actually pulling the wings in all three directions,” Cheng explained. “In this way, the wings have very good agility in the up and down motion as well as the twist motion.
Although additional testing validation is still required, the team is confident their observations could one day positively influence future drone technological advancements that rely on more accurate hummingbird biomimicry.Andrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work also featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney's Internet Tendency.
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