It is said that engineers often look to nature for design ideas, so it doesn't surprise is to find out that hummingbirds have inspired the design of several military drones. These birds are quite slick in the way they fly and hover, and they are able to do this in such a way that allows them to maneuver at speeds unseen in many birds.
It doesn't surprise us to learn the military wants to mimic the actions of the hummingbird, but pulling it off successfully is another thing.
Scientists are taking a serious look at these tiny birds to see what they can learn from them to help improve the mechanics of drones. However, in a recent experiment, scientists compared the world's small drones to hummingbird wings, and came away with the conclusion that they performed equally. Still, researchers realized that one particular hummingbird had a flight performance that is more than 20 percent more efficient when compared to the Black Hornet nanodrone.
This forced scientists to examine the wings of the bird in order to learn some key mechanical tips. Already, the Pentagon is working on projects to design nanodrones for use in the field. So far, the design language is focused on the mechanics of insect flight.
"We have the technology to build a wing that is as efficient as a hummingbird wing," says David Lentink, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford. "We always thought this was out of reach. Now it turns out that if you take the design of the best micro-helicopter out there, it can perform equivalently to the average hummingbird. There's still room for improvement, but it's remarkable that we're this close."
We understand that the Black Hornet drone is already in use by the British military. Soldiers use it to locate potential dangers ahead before moving forward. The drone is capable of sniffing out snipers without putting the life of troops in danger.
While using nanodrones in the military can be seen as a great idea, we're more interested to see how it can work in the consumer space. We're not sure how this would work, but we are definitely open to suggestions.
