Bat-inspired robot swoops and dives like the real thing

It swoops, flaps and dives just like the animals it was designed to mimic. Inspired by the flexibility and agility of bats and their wings, a team of engineers has come up with an autonomous flying robot with the same skills – one that could ultimately be used to survey building sites from the air. Aerial robots have previously taken inspiration from insects and birds, but bats are a tougher challenge for roboticists because of their complicated skeletons and irregular flight patterns. "Bats have a very complex body morphology compared to birds or insects. Their wings are very articulated, with many joints," says team member Alireza Ramezani at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.