Monday, January 26, 2015

Drone Designed to Mimic Vampire Bat

What could go wrong?
Search and rescue operations in more remote areas can benefit from advanced technology such as drones, but you can never count on the NSA being in the right place at the right time during an emergency. But even if they were, big drones suitable for either launching missiles at insurgents or delivering Amazon packages might not be cut out for getting into smaller areas. Also, there are times when there just won’t be enough room to fly (think inside a bunch of tangled cables or twisted metal) and you just have to hit the ground and walk. What could possibly handle such a task? Short answer: the vampire bat. And now we’re going to build some to take care of these critical jobs.
A robot inspired by vampire bats could carry out search and rescue operations in areas that most automobiles can not reach. How does it work?
DALER is a new robot made to look like a bat, which is capable of walking and flying. The device was created to be in a position to access different terrains, allowing the craft to conduct a wide wide variety of search and rescue operations.
The Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot (DALER) is patterned following vampire bats. Wings of the robot are constructed of fabric stretched more than a versatile skeletal structure. This allows the limbs, identified as whegs, to play the roles of both wings and legs.



Pretty cool, really. Now if they just had a hypodermic needle to steal blood with. . .

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