| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Michael Gray" |
| Date: |
12 Apr 2006 02:43:00 AM |
| Object: |
News: Fly like an Eagle! |
Eagle-cam provides aerodynamic insights
10:10 11 April 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Will Knight
By hitching a ride on an eagle's back, engineers hope to learn how to
build aircraft capable of similar feats of aerobatics.
In a series of unique experiments, zoologists Graham Taylor and Adrian
Thomas at Oxford University in the UK have equipped an eagle with
miniature spy cameras and other instruments to record its movements
during flight in precise detail. The tests have already provided new
insight into the way birds control themselves in flight, the pair
claim.
"The results so far show that head movement is very important to
flight," Taylor told New Scientist. "As the bird banks into a turn it
constantly flicks its head into the turn. The idea I'm working on at
the moment is that the bird looks in the direction it wants to turn
and the body catches up."
For the test flights, the researchers enlisted the help of Danish
eagle handler and expert paraglider, Louise Crandal. A short video
showing the view from one of the bird's cameras can be seen here (mov
format), and an impressive movie of Crandal gliding with her eagle,
called Cossack, can be seen here.
Inertial measurement
Taylor and Thomas developed a pack weighing 15 grams that attaches to
the back of a large bird and record its movements in detail. The pack
can carry up to four high speed cameras aimed at the bird’s wings,
head and tail and also contains an "inertial measurement unit" that
records details of its motion. Information from the pack is sent via a
radio transmitter to a receiver on the ground.
The researchers want to understand how the eagle changes shape when it
performs free-flight feats such as sudden braking. But they also hope
to gain insight into how the eagle controls itself dynamically.
"By recording the position and shape of the wings and tail in free
flight while simultaneously monitoring the bird's head and eye
movements, we can work out what inputs and outputs the eagle's control
system receives and sends," Taylor says. "By linking these to the
actual motions of the bird, we can begin to unravel how its control
system functions."
Morphing wings
Ultimately the experiments could help engineers design more
aerodynamic forms of airplanes, including "morphing wing" craft that
could mimic the shape changes of free-flying birds.
Other researchers are already basing aircraft designs on biology. For
example, a team led by Rick Lind at the University of Florida have
built miniature unpiloted craft that mimic wing shapes used by
seagulls. By changing the shape of their wings the craft can more
easily hover, dive or climb rapidly, the researchers have found.
"I think it is good biology to understand how and why birds morph,"
says Steven Hall, an aerodynamics expert at MIT. But Hall adds that he
has yet to be convinced this is crucial to the development of morphing
wing aircraft. "I'm sceptical about the whole idea of biomimetics," he
told New Scientist. "I have yet to see an engineering device that
someone wouldn't have thought of without emulating nature."
Taylor and Thomas presented details of their work at the Society for
Experimental Biology meeting in Canterbury, UK, last week.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn8974&feedId=online-news_rss20
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