July 27, 2007 — The common swift is not only the smallest soaring bird, but can go up to three years without landing. Now a team of researchers has built a micro airplane that mimics the efficient flyer.
The RoboSwift has shape-shifting, adjustable wings that allow it to maneuver at very high or low speeds.
The quick-moving Roboswift could be used to spy on its natural kin — which spend much of their time nearly a mile in the sky — to survey disaster areas, or to peek in on suspicious people.
"Roboswift looks like a real common swift and people don't recognize it as a robotic bird," said Stan Kosman, RoboSwift's team leader and an undergraduate student in aerospace engineering at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands.
With a wingspan of about one-and-a-half feet and weighing just under three ounces, the remote-controlled Roboswift is slightly larger and heavier than a common swift. But like the common swift, the robot can change its wing shape and surface area to glide or dive.
Key to the design is a pair of wings made of four feathers each, which can fold in over each other.
