Festo_BionicFlyingFox_en

BionicFlyingFox Taking a close look at wings in nature Besides the ingenious kinematics, the artificial flying fox also owes its agility to its lightweight design and clever use of materials; its body is made of foam, whilst the skeleton consists of milled car- bon rods and 3D-printed parts. Specially developed flying membrane The model’s flying membrane is wafer-thin and ultralight whilst also robust. It consists of two airtight films and a knitted elastane fabric, which are welded together at approximately 45,000 points. Due to its elasticity, it stays almost uncreased, even when the wings are retracted. The fabric’s honeycomb structure prevents small cracks in the flying membrane from getting bigger. This means that the BionicFlyingFox can continue flying even if the fabric sustains minor damage. When it comes to the artificial flying fox, the focus, as with its bio- logical model, is on lightweight constructions. Because the same applies in engineering as it does in nature: the less weight there is to move, the lower the energy consumption. In addition, the light- weight design saves resources in the construction process. Stimulus for production of the future The artificial flying fox also provides important findings for indus- trial automation. In the production of the future, the intelligence from the central control system will be divided into subsystems and components. Even single workpieces will become intelligent and know what product they are supposed to be made into. They will accordingly be able to communicate with the machines and tell them how they must be processed. Decentralised intelligence and machine learning In the case of the BionicFlyingFox, the intelligence is also decen- tralised: the master computer specifies the flight paths and the control commands. During the flight, it compares its calculated intended courses with the actual ones and adjusts these with in- creasing efficiency using machine learning. It is therefore sufficient to program rudimentary knowledge into the control electronics at the start. The artificial flying fox derives the corresponding ideal settings for its kinematics itself from the calculations. It detects how it must control the wings and legs in order to implement the commands from the master computer in an optimal manner. Flying in the Bionic Learning Network The BionicFlyingFox is being added to a series of flying objects which have already emerged from the Bionic Learning Network. To start with, the developers dived underwater and studied vari- ous biological models, which, although they cannot fly, are able to propel themselves by beating their wings. Thanks to its lightweight construction, uplift provided by helium and beating-wing drive, the Air_ray from 2007 moves through the air like the real manta ray moves through water. The AirPenguins from 2009 can fly in a group and can autonomously explore a de- fined space. In this respect, their flying movements come very close to the swimming technique of their natural role models. Bird flight decrypted: uplift without helium The SmartBird from 2011 is inspired by the herring gull. Although the first bionic flying objects were filled with helium, the SmartBird was able to simultaneously provide propulsion and the necessary uplift with its beating wings. With this functional integration, bird flight was decrypted in technical terms. Flying like a dragonfly and butterfly In 2013 Festo implemented the highly complex flying characteris- tics of the dragonfly in the form of the BionicOpter. Thanks to the installed control electronics, the ultra-lightweight flying object can, like its biological model, manoeuvre in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings at all. At the same time, the artificial dragonfly can assume almost any position in any space. The eMotionButterflies from 2015 can also master the fast move- ments of their natural role model with the help of their intelligent on-board electronics. So that the artificial butterflies move as a group in a coordinated manner, they are recorded – like the BionicFlyingFox now too – by means of their infrared markers and coordinated by an external motion-tracking system. With the artificial flying fox, Festo has now technically implement- ed the unique kinematics of Chiroptera and thus also decrypted the last flying behaviour from the animal world within the frame- work of the Bionic Learning Network. 01 02 01: Robust flying membrane: the fabric’s honeycomb structure gives the ultra- lightweight membrane the necessary stability. 02: Constant communication: the BionicFlyingFox in an ongoing exchange with the motion-tracking system. 03: Bionic flying objects: from Air_ray and AirPenguin via SmartBird, BionicOpter and eMotionButterflies to the BionicFlyingFox. 03 6 Festo AG & Co. KG 7 BionicFlyingFox: Ultra-lightweight flying object with intelligent kinematics