The title image is from Festo, this article is fromWeChat official account: Heart of the Machine (ID: almosthuman2014) , author: Zhang Qian
Although human beings have used airplanes to fly into the sky more than 100 years ago, this kind of rigid aircraft always makes people feel inflexible. Therefore, for a long time after the appearance of the aircraft, people have been committed to making a truly agile aircraft like a bird, Germany’s Festo company is one of them.
At this year’s World Robotics Conference, this company showed the world their latest achievement-Bionic Swift(BionicSwift).
The weight of these bionic Swifts is very light, only 42 grams, about the same as a sparrow. But they are much larger than sparrows: they are about 17.5 inches in length(44.45 cm) and wingspan is 27 inches(68.58 cm).
Although the appearance looks very simple, these “Swifts” can complete very complex movements, including sharp turns, vertical dives, etc.:
Festo: A company obsessed with bionics
Festo is an industrial control and automation company in Germany, founded in 1925, famous for manufacturing various whimsical bionic robots. These bionic robots include not only flying in the sky, but also swimming in water and running on the ground.
First talk about flying in the sky. In the past few years, Festo has demonstrated black technologies such as bionic dragonflies, bionic bats, and bionic butterflies:
Talk about swimming in the water, such as bionic jellyfish: