News in Science

Locust wings to inspire flying robots

Australian and UK researchers have used high-speed photography to reveal the complex nature of insect flight.

The research, published in today's edition of Science, puts scientists one step closer to creating mini robotic aircraft.

Aeronautical engineer and lead researcher Dr John Young, of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, says small flying insects are the best place to learn how to make small robotic aircrafts.

Their wings have been "optimised over hundreds of years [of] evolutionary pressures," he says.

Fixed wings, like those on aeroplanes, become very inefficient in tiny robotic planes, says Young.

"People are now looking at flapping wings as an alternative structure."

Efficient flyers

Young says he and his colleagues from the University of Oxford decided to study locusts because they are very efficient flyers.

"They can fly for a very long time, over very long distances with very little energy."

He says their aim was to understand what they were doing and "use some of their tricks" to build small robotic aircrafts.

Young says the team started their experiments by videoing the locusts flying in a wind tunnel.

The locust's wing motion could be calculated from multiple angles, he says.

Young then used this data in a computer simulation to understand the locust's aerodynamics.

"I looked at the forces the wings generated, what lift and power it took to make the wings flap," he says.

Young says by manipulating the simulations he discovered that the locust's power and efficiency comes from the complex folding of the wings.

"The locust is using the bending and the folding of its wings to control its aerodynamics in a very efficient way," he says.

Computer manipulation

Young then used the computer simulation to modify the wings and study the effects.

"I wanted to find out what would be the results if the wings were slightly different, if they didn't have all the veins and corrugation," he says.

One of the modifications was to make the wings flatter, something engineers would find easier to build.

But Young says the simulations showed that flatter wings aren't as efficient.

"The results show that if you want to model the insect you have to get as much detail as you can and build wings that do most of what the insect wings do," he says.

Young says they'd now like to use their findings to build their own small robotic aircraft.

He says defence forces around the world have shown a lot of interest in the technology.

According to Young, small robotic aircraft could be used to fly "anywhere you don't want to send people, but need to navigate a complex environment," such as a collapsed building or flood region.