Festo’s SmartBird robot features innovative flapping wings that allow it to fly and glide through the air like a real bird.
This amazing bionic bird can take-off, fly, and land autonomously. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles.
With this cool invention, Festo engineers have succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds – one of the oldest dreams of humankind.
peppy
It poops battery acid.
Mar 26th, 2011
zunny
A R/C Slope glider in seagulls clothes, this is the next generation of gliders, looks like you don’t need much wind for this baby.
Mar 27th, 2011
gunneos
first impression: COOL! afterthought: the flapping looks kind of fake, more flapping for the sake of flapping than actual aerodynamic motion to aid in flying.
Mar 27th, 2011
Atavistica
Looks like the inner wing is providing the lions share of the lift and the outer wing is providing thrust. Nice to notice its also providing thrust on the upstroke, took a tip from the bumblebees to provide additional lift the for that one, eh?
Mar 27th, 2011
Sam
But… why spend time on making a fake bird? Can it cure cancer? Can it feed starving children in africa? I mean… its cool and all but the time, money and research needed to make this thing I feel couldve been used in much more productive ways.
Mar 27th, 2011
Gert
Ok… first, my husband works for a division of FastLad and I can’t WAIT for them to carry this!
Who cares if it flaps too much? Who in the RC community is going to notice or care exactly?
As for curing cancer… wait WHAT?! Why are you even ON Toxel?! All that time and money spent on research made someone able to support themselves well enough to make donations to cancer research. I swear some people act like their cause is the ONLY thing ANYONE should spend money on EVER. Sheash. People have to make a living man. If they don’t specialize in medical science but they are REALLY good engineers why is this your problem exactly!?
Productive? Are you off your rocker? What is not productive about holding down a good job in this economy? Are you going to complain the guy flipping your burgers could be working in a lab next?
I don’t want an engineer for a surgeon but thanks anyways.
Mar 27th, 2011
woops
Autonomous is a strong word…
Mar 27th, 2011
Simon
This is awesome. If I lived somewhere with a lot of fields, I would buy one. Thankyou Gert! Some people post some really stupid things on this site and I’m glad you feel the same about it as I do.
Mar 27th, 2011
Li
Hopefully this will be engineered to seek and potrol unwatned birds, especially pidgeons in urban areas (or crops in rual areas). I can also see it being used as a surveillance device, from military observation to hollywood paparazzi. The bird can be used to capture nature in a more discreet way as well. This can even be bought by a corporation to be used as an advertisment device, like a mini blimp.
The base design is a bird, but the technology can be used and combined with others to invent many new designs and uses. The day when pigs fly is near. :)
Mar 28th, 2011
bert
totally agree with Gert,
cant believe someone post something that silly here…
Mar 28th, 2011
Brice
To Sam:
In the long run, this could cure cancer. If you look at the bigger picture!
You see, now that we are able to do this on a minature form, we can now enlarge that, into planes. Cargo, personal, commercial and air force. All the fuel they burn every minute, and all the cost associated with that, all the gases released because of it, all the people sick because of it. All of this can now be turned around and possibly reversed, just by this small invention.
Does it cure cancer, YEA!
Apr 1st, 2011
James
@Gert
SING IT SISTER! hahaha perfectly stated.
Apr 4th, 2011
Sanjay Jogi
I would like to congratulate Markus Fischer and the team who worked for the smart birds project, This is good job this is the thing which we can say close to reality, one can say efforts realized.
May 5th, 2011
Frank Albright
I don’t believe the people who argue about the time and energy spent on making this bird, or how real it looks, or why the effort was not made towards curing cancer.
To me this is ingenious, period!
The clever design and the technological innovation of this bird is mesmerizing. This is the first time – as far as I know – that flying of a man-made device is not based on the “lift” phenomenon, which is very noisy and inflexible, and consumes a lot of energy.
After all, I think makers of this bird already have been more helpful in reducing the cancer rate in future than people criticizing them.
Aug 2nd, 2011