Drones that fly like birds

Inside Unmanned Systems (Feb. 26) -- Despite the many design improvements being made as industry strives to implement drone-based applications, even the most advanced drones simply don’t have the agility and grace that comes so naturally to birds. “We think nature offers a lot of solutions to current engineering problems,” said Aimy Wissa, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. “The same UAS can’t perform all the tasks a bird can, including taking off, hovering, perching, landing and cruising. Birds can do all these things efficiently, where UAS are based on point design. They’re good at one thing but not the other. That’s the reason we work on adaptive structures.”