Bats' weird wings inspired this drone

Bats are amongst the animal kingdom's most unorthodox fliers. Unlike birds, the furry, flying mammals can dynamically reshape and morph their wings to achieve maximum force and hover in place. The soft membrane of their wings, which more closely resembles a human arm than a bird's wing, is also extremely flexible, which means bats can contour themselves to squeeze into tiny corridors. Now, researchers from Northeastern University are leaning on those unique elements and applying them to a fully autonomous flying drone called "Aerobat." Eventually, they believe this bat-inspired robot could be used to navigate sewer tunnels, caves, and other tight corridors largely off-limits to current flying robots.