Scientists at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology turned bird specimens into drones to study flight.
The project leader is Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian, a mechanical engineering professor. He realized that mechanical birds did not bring the desired results. “We came up with the idea that we could use dead birds and turn them into drones.”
These drones can be used to better understand how they fly in flocks. This knowledge can then be applied to the aviation industry.
“If we learn from them how to manage energy between them, we can apply that to aviation in the future to save more energy and save more fuel,” Dr. Hassanalian said.
And doctoral student Brenden Herkenhoff is investigating whether bird color affects flight performance. “We performed experiments and determined that for fixed-wing aircraft, applying certain colors can change flight performance,” he said. And we believe it’s the same with birds.”
Mr. Hassanalian said that the current bird model UAV can only fly for a maximum of 20 minutes. So the next stage is to figure out how to make it fly longer and conduct tests in the wild, flying the bird among groups of living birds.
