Fake bird flies by flapping wings made with goose feathers

摘要

A ROBOTIC bird with flapping wings covered in real feathers has flown for the first time. A team of researchers at Guangxi University in China and Chinese firm Bee-eater Technology built a carbon fibre skeleton with aluminium joints and some plastic parts. It was then covered in a thin foam and goose feathers laid in a pattern mimicking that on a real bird. An electric motor powered the flapping wings, using a gearbox to reduce the output speed by 48 times. This allowed the robot to flap its wings more like a large bird of prey and not rapidly, like a hummingbird. The tail pivots vertically and horizontally, providing much the same function as the tail flaps and rudder of an aeroplane. The wings can also rotate slightly around the axis of the wingspan to create pitch. The ornithopter - as an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings is known - is based on the traits of a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and has a wingspan of 195 centimetres. Whereas a golden eagle can weigh anything from about 2.7 to 6.8 kilograms, this robot weighs just 667 grams.