Moth drone stays rock steady in gale-force winds

• Autores: David Hambling
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2952, 2014, pág. 19
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Small drones find it difficult to fly in strong winds and cluttered environments. So Physical Sciences Inc (PSI) based in Andover MA in association with the US military, filmed hawk moths to see how they manage to stay aloft. The firm used a motion-tracking system familiar to film-makers, attaching reflective beads to moth wings and recording the moth's flight via high-speed cameras. The moth's ability to react very quickly to disturbances in the air seems to be key to its success. While moths do collide with things, they can recover quickly. The resulting algorithms have been built into a new quadrotor drone, unveiled this month, called InstantEye.