Festo's Energy-Efficient SmartBird Making Waves in the Robotic Segment

A brand new entrant in the robotic menagerie of Festo is a seagull, named SmartBird. At first glance, the robot with bird like features gives an impression of an air-filled plastic bird. Well, it has much more to offer than its looks.

festos smartbird robot orisr 3868

The stupefying SmartBird weighs just a meager 450g and touts of a 1.96 m wingspan. A herring gull is the main inspiration for this SmartBird, as the robot can easily take off, fly, and land independently, without any help of supplemental drive systems.

With this new invention, Festo has succeeded in decoding the flight of birds. As compared to a real bird, the robotic bird’s tail is not only for show but it plays a vital role in lift and functions as a pitch elevator and yaw rudder.

The awe-inspiring development of a flying robot is an integral part of Festo’s 2011 Bionic Learning Network projects. When it comes to evolving robotic systems, Festo is really the field expert! Usually, the robotic experts just follow and copy the design of a specific living being or creature, but its practicality are not efficiently tapped. In this case, Festo has given all other robotic experts a run for their money.

If you closely observe the way the SmartBird makes it moves, you will notice it twists and bends as good as a real bird. The torso of the smart robot is packed with an engine, battery and transmission. While on flight, the position of the wings can be closely supervised in a two-way Zigbee protocol radio communication that can be set and maximized in real time.

Yet another biggest virtue of this flying robot is its lightweight structure and minimal use of materials, that is undoubtedly going to be a plus point in energy consumption.

With so many impressive and energy efficient features on offer, this SmartBird is genuinely an odd one out in the crowd of umpteen robots; and it has in fact set a high standard for other robotic players in the market, giving a future insight for wild design imaginations in robotic science.

Picture Gallery

Festo SmartBird Robotic Seagull

Via: IEEESpectrum / AutoMotto