April 10, 2013 11:04am ETBat Wings Inspire Researcher Research in Action A robotic bat wing lets researchers measure forces, joint movements, and flight parameters — and learn more about how the real thing operates in nature. Credit: Breuer and Swartz labs/Brown University View full size image

This Research in Action article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Researcher Joseph Bahlman, a graduate student at Brown University, developed the robotic bat wing depicted in this video to help scientists better understand the workings of bat flight. "Bats are just really amazing, spectacular flyers," says Bahlman, a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow. "Their wings are extremely dynamic, so much more dynamic than birds or insects. If you look at the wings of a bat, they're just like our hands, they have all these joints that let their wings adapt into lots of different shapes, giving them a tremendous range of aerodynamic forces and maneuverabilities. They fly much better than anything we've engineered. I would love to figure out how that works and then duplicate it."

Bahlman's research, conducted in the labs of Brown professors and bat flight experts Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz, could offer insights that aid the design of small aircraft, among other applications. The work has received funding from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NSF.

Early studies with the robotic flapper, described in a paper published in February in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, showed that when bats fold their wings in flight, they are in effect reducing drag. With the down stroke of a wing during flight, the body moves up, but the subsequent upstroke can counter that force. Wing folding addresses that problem, making flight more efficient.

Brown University's "ro-bat" mimics the shape and motion of the wing of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, a species found in abundance in South and Southeast Asia.

More about bats:

Batty for Bats

The Night Life: Why We Need Bats All the Time--Not Just on Halloween

Editor's Note: Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. See the Research in Action archive.

蝙蝠的翅膀激发着研究员的灵感

2013年4月10号在Action 的机器人蝙蝠翼形让研究人员测量力量，关节运动和飞行参数上午11点04分ETBat翅膀启发研究员研究 - 和了解更多关于真实的东西工作在自然界。图片来源：布鲁尔和斯沃茨实验室

布朗大学查看原图

本研究在行动文章提供给生活科学与国家科学基金会的合作伙伴关系.

研究员约瑟夫Bahlman，研究生在??布朗大学研制的机器人蝙蝠翼形描述在这段视频中，以帮助科学家更好地了解蝙蝠的飞行运作。 ＆QUOT;蝙蝠是真的很神奇，壮观的传单，＆QUOT; Bahlman，美国国家科学基金会研究生研究员说。 ＆QUOT;他们的翅膀是非常动态的，因此比鸟类或昆虫变得更加富有活力。如果你看一下蝙蝠的翅膀，他们就像我们的手中，他们拥有所有这些连接可以让自己的翅膀改编成许多不同的形状，给他们气动力和气动maneuverabilities的巨大范围。他们飞得比任何我们所设计的要好得多。我很想弄清楚是如何工作的，然后复制它＆QUOT;

Bahlman的研究，在布朗教授和蝙蝠飞行专家肯尼斯·布鲁尔和莎朗斯沃茨的实验室进行的，可以提供的见解，帮助小型飞机的设计，其中其他应用程序。这项工作得到了资助科学研究的美国空军办公室和美国国家科学基金会.

早期研究的机器人插板，发表在二月Bioinspiration和仿生学的论文中描述，表明，当蝙蝠折叠翅膀在飞行中，他们实际上是减少阻力。用飞行翼的上下行程，身体向上移动，但随后的冲程可以对抗这种力量。机翼折叠地址的问题，使得飞行的效率.

布朗大学的＆QUOT; RO-BAT＆QUOT;模仿的形状和较小的狗面临果蝠翼的运动，纷纷在南亚和东南亚发现的物种.

更多关于蝙蝠：

巴蒂蝙蝠

夜生活：为什么我们需要蝙蝠所有时间 - 不只是在万圣节

编者按：任何意见，研究成果和结论或表达这种材料的建议是那些作者的，并不一定反映国家科学基金会的意见。见行动档案的研究