Purdue University researchers have engineered flying robots that behave like hummingbirds, trained by machine learning algorithms (计算程序) based on various techniques the bird uses naturally every day. The robot would be able to fly better through collapsed buildings to find trapped victims.
Even though such a robot can't see yet, it senses by touching surfaces. Each touch changes an electric current, which the researchers realized that they could track. Xinyan Deng, a professor, and her colleagues at Purdue have been trying to decode (破译) hummingbird flight so that robots can fly where larger aircraft can't. Deng's group studied hummingbirds themselves for many summers in Montana. They documented key hummingbird actions, such as making a rapid 180-degree turn, and translated them to computer algorithms that the robot could learn from when connected with a simulation (模拟操作).
Further study on the physics of insects and hummingbirds allowed Purdue researchers to build robots smaller than hummingbirds--and even as small as insects-without compromising the way they fly. The smaller the size, the greater the wing flapping frequency, and the more efficiently they fly. The robots have 3D-printed bodies and wings made of carbon fiber. The researchers have built one hummingbird robot weighing 12 grams--the weight of the average adult hummingbird. The hummingbird robot can lift up to 27 grams.
Designing their robots with higher lift gives the researchers more room to eventually add a battery and sensing technology, such as a-camera or GPS. Currently, the robot needs to be tied to an energy source while it flies-but that won't be for much longer, the researchers say. The robots could fly silently just as a real hummingbird does, making them more ideal for covert (转换) operations.
Robotic hummingbirds would not only help with search-and-rescue tasks, but also allow biologists to more reliably study hummingbirds. In their natural environment through the senses of a realistic robot. This work is part of Purdue's 1501° anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to show Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues.
