A Brand New Micro Aerial Vehicle with Shape Morphing Wings for Wildlife Research and Monitoring

Our project proposed an invention of a fully self-contained, autonomous flying robot that can mimic the morphology of the bat wings. Inspired by its attractive flying characteristics, our flying robot could achieve more agile flying ability in hovering and turning than conventional micro aerial vehicles. Meanwhile, the shape-morphing and flapping wings help the robot fly more quietly than quadrotors. All the advantages lead to a lot of interesting applications, including monitoring in complex geographic sites like underground mines, quiet maneuvering to study flying ecosystem, safe inspection of power transportation system, to name a few. Along with the novel, robust control and navigation methodology, this invention is expected to act as a smart flying vehicle to perform tasks in complex geographic environments independently.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ting Zou

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Advanced Manufacturing; Aerospace; Technology

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program: