Inspiration of Aviation & Gliding Goals

Introduction Birds are able to achieve flight most obviously through the lift created by their wings, but they fly in a way humans cannot. The bird body and skeleton has been optimized to allow for flapping, gliding and diving that permits the bird to function throughout the day while performing life essential tasks. The light delicate structure of their skeleton is advantageous for flight, but is something we as humans do not possess in either our own bodies or often times in the mechanisms we make which contain large heavy actuators and components. Our devices are very clumsy when compared with nature. This is why our group chose to emulate wing motion instead of develop a more utilitarian mechanism.

Inspirational Devices Interest in this field began long ago with records earlier than Da Vinci and Icarus. Although many pursue this path, of both creating a flying mechanism and achieving motion akin to birds, there is room for advancement in both areas and for our team, discovery. Countless projects drew us in to this idea, including robotic flies from Harvard,  the hummingbird from The Advanced Vertical Flight Laboratory at A&M University, the magpie model from grabcad.com, and the animatronic ornithopter that represents the parrot Waddlesworth in 102 Dalmatians . The most advanced example found through research that appeases both flight and realistic bird motion is Festo the Smartbird. The robot’s looks are based on a seagull, it  not only moves like a gull but is able to take flight in the same way.

Goals With influence from these amazing devices and the natural build it of biological wings, we decided we would pursue designing a bird wing mechanism. For obvious time, resource, and expertise constraints on our team, we decided simply to emulate the motion of bird wings. If successful in this endeavor we planned to look into the possibility of short flight for the device, but recognize that time will likely not allow for this next step. Our team’s semester goal is to create the 3D motion of bird wings, that is both accurate and realistic in appearance.