{"id":265910,"date":"2024-12-04T22:25:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/04\/flying-robot-leaps-upwards-and-then-takes-to-the-air-like-a-bird\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:15","slug":"flying-robot-leaps-upwards-and-then-takes-to-the-air-like-a-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/04\/flying-robot-leaps-upwards-and-then-takes-to-the-air-like-a-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying robot leaps upwards and then takes to the air like a bird"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>\n    <iframe title=\"This robot has legs that work like a birds\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ruw5AygidBE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n    <\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2351996-watch-this-robot-bird-use-a-talon-like-claw-to-land-safely-on-a-perch\/\">robot<\/a> that can jump into flight like a bird could eliminate the need for runways for small fixed-winged drones.<\/p>\n<p>Birds use the powerful explosive force generated by their legs to leap into the air and start flying, but building a robot that can withstand the strong acceleration and forces involved in doing that has proved difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Now, <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=PnvHiqwAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">Won Dong Shin<\/a> at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) and his colleagues have built a flying propellered robot called RAVEN that can walk, hop and jump into the air to start flying, with legs that work like a bird\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFixed-wing vehicles, like airplanes, always require a runway or a launcher, which is not found everywhere. It really requires designated infrastructure to make an airplane take off,\u201d says Shin. \u201cBut if you see a bird, they just walk around, jump and take off. For them, it\u2019s quite easy. They don\u2019t need any external assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike real birds\u2019 legs, which have joints at the hip, knee and ankle, RAVEN\u2019s legs have just two joints, at the hip and knee, that are powered by motors. There is also a spring in each foot that can store and release elastic energy. Using fewer components meant that Shin and his team could keep RAVEN to a weight of around 600 grams, similar to that of a crow.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"js-content-prompt-opportunity\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In indoor tests, RAVEN could jump almost half a metre into the air and at 2.4 metres per second \u2013 which is a similar speed to birds of the same size \u2013 at which point a propeller takes over. Being able to launch upwards from anywhere could make RAVEN useful in disaster relief missions where regular fixed-wing drones can\u2019t land or take off, says Shin. First, however, the team will need to develop RAVEN\u2019s ability to land safely, he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen quite a lot of work on flying robots that land on perches, but not a lot of people have focused on take off with legs,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.co.uk\/citations?user=FxjJlbkAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">Raphael Zufferey<\/a>, also at EPFL, who wasn\u2019t involved with the work. \u201cI think we\u2019ll see the two fields \u2013 landing, or perching, and take off \u2013 come together in single platforms, where we\u2019re able to have these robots fly, detect a branch, land on it, recover, do a mission and then take off.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"ArticleTopics\">\n<p class=\"ArticleTopics__Heading\">Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2458864-flying-robot-leaps-upwards-and-then-takes-to-the-air-like-a-bird\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] A robot that can jump into flight like a bird could eliminate the need for runways for small fixed-winged drones. Birds use the powerful<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}