Hummingbirds do it, bees do it. But for tiny robots, hovering has proven a challenge. Flapping-wing robots known as ornithopters can replicate insect wing motions, but these designs require ...

Since the dawn of aviation, birds have been an inspiration for visionaries of flight. And now, engineers are once again looking to feathered friends to inspire the next generation of aircraft wings.

In 2021, a group of scientists from China engineered the RoboFalcon—a bird-inspired flapping-wing robot with a newly engineered mechanism made to drive bat-style morphing wings capable of flight.

Taking their cues from the birds, Airbus engineers have flown a scale-model airplane that incorporates flapping wing-tips. Based on the structure of the albatross wing, the remote-controlled ...

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have developed a flapping-wing drone that can locate and hover around a moving ...

Researchers have drawn inspiration from a 300-million-year-old superior flying machine - the dragonfly - to show why future flapping wing drones will probably resemble the insect in shape, wings and ...

Insects are thought to use specific chest muscles to actively open and close their wings. However, high-speed imaging reveals that rhinoceros beetles flap their hindwings to deploy them for flight, ...

The study of bio-inspired flapping flight and the dynamics of micro air vehicles (MAVs) has grown into a vibrant interdisciplinary field, merging insights from insect biomechanics, aerodynamics and ...

One of the challenges in designing micro air vehicles (MAVs) lies in the fact that if their battery is large enough to provide much range, it's too heavy for them to carry. Scientists have developed ...

Archaeopteryx was a flapper, not just a glider. The shape of the ancient bird’s wing bones suggests it was capable of short bursts of active, flapping flight, similar to how modern birds like ...