Most of you would remember the unsightly flying creatures with scary teeth in the final sequel of Jurassic Park. Named the Pterodactyl, this pterosaur (first invertebrate with flying capabilities) has inspired a paleontologist, an engineer and two students to design an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with similar traits. The Pterodrone walks, flies, sails, squeezes through narrow passages and even lands on balconies, pretty much like a real one. A robotic spy plane, this UAV also relies on smell, sound, vision, etc. to collect real-time data.
What’s Innovative: Machines inspired by nature’s creations aren’t new. We have seen subs and aircraft drawing their characteristics from birds and marine animals. However, this would perhaps be the first time when a prehistoric animal would lend its design to a robot. Exciting times we live in, certainly!
Watch This: The Pterodrone is currently in the conceptualization stage. We are hoping this design would set new benchmarks in robotics.
Designers: Sankar Chatterjee, a paleontologist at Texas Tech University, Rick Lind – an aeronautical engineer from the University of Florida, and their students Andy Gedeon and Brian Roberts have combined their expertise and creativity to come up with one of the most exciting robotic designs in recent times.
Via: Scientificblogging
