|
Menu |
Jellyfish aircraft is one ultra-light flying device that is
undulating its way into the sky this week. Closely resembling the actual
movement of the water-bound jellyfish, this machine has been called a “robotic
insect” of sorts that can literally fly through the air and even right itself
when touched.
The jellyfish aircraft weighs only .07 ounces, but can do
quite a lot with such little weight. The light and tiny device is something that
those at the Applied Math Labs are touting as the very first of its kind, and
its sheer design is enough to turn heads.
"We were interested first of all in making a robotic insect that would be an
alternative to the helicopter," Leif Ristroph a fluid dynamics researcher at
NYU's Applied Math Lab, told Agence France-Presse. "Our interest ended up being
a little bit weird — it was the jellyfish."
With a very basic nervous system and an apparent lack of a brain, the jellyfish
is one animal that has been of great interest and appreciation from those
experienced in engineering due to its smooth and efficient form of movement. In
an attempt to manipulate this motion from the seas to the skies, the idea for a
jellyfish aircraft stirred in the minds of these advanced thinkers.
In the miniscule flying machine, a tiny motor is connected to a crankshaft that
enables the four cornerstone wings (no more than four inches long) to push
themselves upward and outward, much like the actual animal itself. With air
being pushed through a specially designed cone at the base of the aircraft, this
enables the device to propel itself through the air in an undulating manner
(much as a jellyfish might move through the water).
Stability might be this particular drone’s greatest selling point, as it can
often correct itself mid-flight when necessary.
"If it's knocked over, it stabilizes by itself," Ristroph said in a statement.
“When it needs to change a certain direction, one wing works harder than the
rest to alter its new course.”
The materials used to build the flying jellyfish aircraft weren’t that complex
either, and could be bought at most locales right over the counter from a hobby
store.
"We were inspired in part by videos from the 1900s, in the early experimental
days of flying. They were very creative in those days, they had lots of very
good ideas, but also some bad ones," .
|
|
 |
|
Worldwide Travel & Cruise Assoc., Inc.
150 S. University Dr. Ste E,
Plantation, FL 33324 - USA
Tel: +1 954 452 8800 Fax: +1 954
252 3945
EMail:
sales@cruiseco.com |
