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UK biomimetic engineering startup\u00a0Animal Dynamics<\/a>\u00a0is building\u00a0a microdrone with wings inspired by the flapping flight of a dragonfly. The project, which started in June 2015 with a feasibility study, is\u00a0being funded with \u00a31.5 million from the\u00a0UK Ministry of Defence, via DSTL<\/a>, the Defence Science and Technology Lab.<\/p>\n Last fall the company\u00a0switched\u00a0from researching the feasibility of\u00a0the concept into phase two: actually trying to build the thing.\u00a0They now say\u00a0they\u2019re confident they\u2019ll have\u00a0a flying prototype of their Skeeter drone to demo by this summer \u2014 with the tech potentially deployed in the field by\u00a0the end\u00a0of next year.<\/p>\n To be clear this microdrone has\u00a0not yet got off the ground. At this point all they\u2019re\u00a0showing publicly is the bug-like model\u00a0on a stick, pictured above. But Animal Dynamics co-founder and CEO Alex Caccia says he\u2019s\u00a0confident it will take to the\u00a0air in \u201ctwo to three months\u2019 time\u201d. \u201cOne of the challenges with something that flies is that everything has to work for it to work at all \u2014 but we\u2019re pretty close to it now. The \u2018ah-ha\u2019 moment of it flying is almost the last thing that happens,\u201d\u00a0he adds.<\/p>\n The team is also looking\u00a0to raise around \u00a34 million in Series A funding in the next few months for continued\u00a0development of Skeeter but also to fund some potential spin-out technologies they\u2019ve created along the way \u2014 such as a high efficiency linear actuator designed for the drone which they reckon could also be used for other use-cases, such as in medical pumps and for road vehicle propulsion.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re fundamentally interested in developing commercial products from studies and understanding of how nature reaches these tricks that allow greater performance and efficiency,\u201d says\u00a0Caccia.<\/p>\n Drones with flapping wings do exist \u2014 including a DARPA-backed drone that resembles a hummingbird<\/a>, built by US company Aeroenviroment back in 2010 \u2014 but it\u2019s fair to say that flapping drones\u00a0are the exception not the rule. A far more typical animal in this space is the buzzing quadcopter.<\/p>\n Yet rotary blades have drawbacks. They don\u2019t support stable flight in windy conditions. They\u2019re noisy. They can even be dangerous. And they can require a lot of power to stay airborne. Hence\u00a0the MoD\u2019s hope of driving development of a\u00a0more\u00a0robust flight technique\u00a0that can withstand tough in-the-field\u00a0environmental conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very extreme challenge, set down from them \u2014 DSTL came up with the requirements \u2014 which is can you make something at this scale operate in high wind and difficult environmental conditions,\u201d says Caccia, discussing the MoD\u2019s requirements for the Skeeter drone.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d been using small drones in Afghanistan and Iraq with quite a lot of success because when the environmental conditions are right they are extremely useful for soldiers on the ground to go out and see what\u2019s round the corner\u2026 they need to be small so that they can\u2019t be seen, so that they\u2019re easily carried and so that they\u2019re quiet. However as soon as there\u2019s a slight wind \u2014 anything above\u00a05 meters per second \u2014 they get blown out of the sky\u2026 So they\u2019ve got a frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n As Caccia tells it, the\u00a0\u2018usual suspect\u2019 defence suppliers weren\u2019t at all confident they\u00a0could build anything\u00a0to meet\u00a0the MoD\u2019s microdrone challenge. But Animal Dynamics\u2019 other co-founder,\u00a0Adrian Thomas, a professor of biomechanics in the Zoology Department of Oxford, suggested the answer could lie in looking to nature for inspiration \u2014 given that birds and insects are able to achieve stable flight in turbulent conditions. And, ultimately, Animal Dynamics\u2019\u00a0pitch secured\u00a0the DSTL funds.<\/p>\n \u201cAdrian was doing some work in his garden during Storm Doris and\u00a0there were 50 mile an hour winds and there were bumblebees happily buzzing around the lawns, completely unfussed by the high winds. Which is something insects have solved for a very long time,\u201d says Caccia. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very difficult to do but the interesting things is that flapping wing propulsion lends itself to solving this problem very well. Rotary blade propulsion doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked for an\u00a0opinion\u00a0on the engineering challenges of flapping, Dr Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Lab at Imperial College London, tells\u00a0us: \u201cFlapping wing flight has several advantages compared to propeller based solutions, including the ability for high\u00a0manoeuvrability and potentially low energy consumption during forward flight. The challenge however is significant and includes the need for a thorough understanding of the aerodynamics involved, as well as the development of the mechanics and wing transmission mechanisms as well as the controller for successful flight.\u201d<\/p>\n Commenting on\u00a0the Skeeter project specifically, Kovac adds: \u201cThe mentioned timeline seems possible but it will depend on the size and weight of the vehicle. Bird-sized flapping wing vehicles are partially already available on the toy-market while bee-sized flying robots are still the topic of intense university research. However, I do believe that it is possible to build a flapping micro drone that can provide value in environmental monitoring, smart farming and search and rescue applications.\u201d<\/p>\n Caccia\u00a0says the biggest remaining challenge to getting Skeeter off the ground at this point is the mechanical design. Flapping, as you\u2019d expect, is a lot more complex in engineering terms than spinning \u2014 especially if you also have relatively little\u00a0power to play with, as it\u2019s a lightweight, battery-operated device.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge is really around producing a very low friction mechanism. So the wings we\u2019ve built, the flight control system has been solved, it\u2019s actually the mechnical design that\u2019s very difficult. So we\u2019re doing some work with some people in the Swiss watch industry to help us out\u2026 It\u2019s really about friction. You need to get the mechanism to be very, very low friction,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the slightest friction will cause resistance, and create heat and stop the thing from working properly. Most mechanical systems get around it by putting an unreasonable amount of power in. We don\u2019t have that so we have to make things run very, very smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas also points to\u00a0\u201cfriction and inertial load\u201d as the hard problems. \u201cThe high leverage at the wing hinge means that the motors \u2018see\u2019 about 50 times the wing weight, so driving the wing weight down has huge benefits. Similarly, apart from the aerodynamic loads, almost all the work done by the motors is work against friction in the flapping system, driving the friction in the system down pays huge dividends,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stability and control systems may seem challenging, but there has been a lot of work done on control and stability in birds and insects, and our vehicle has a huge advantage over any of the other current drones that can hover \u2014 turn the motor off and it glides, with good passive stability, down to a relatively gentle landing.\u201d<\/p>\n On the plus side, the team says it\u2019s benefiting from the easy availability of electronic components \u2014 spilling over from the mobile\u00a0industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe extraordinary thing and one of the factors that has made a project like this possible is availability of components from the mobile phone industry. The access to very low costs MEMS and sensors and tiny antenna and a whole array of electronics is really one of the key factors,\u201d says Caccia. \u201cI\u2019ve noticed that a whole bunch of components have come onto the markets as development boards \u2014 literally in the last two to three years \u2014 I think partly also driven by the wearables market\u2026 Which anyone can have access to. And certainly we\u2019re using that.\u201d<\/p>\n He also suggests this liberal availability of electronic components is providing an added incentive for the MoD to fund projects such as Skeeter.\u00a0\u201cThey need to try and keep one step ahead, but also engage with the tech developer world far more to understand how these technologies are being used,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n The dragonfly-esque Skeeter is planned to\u00a0be 120mm at its largest; weigh less than 20 grams (packing a camera and the other necessary comms and navigation sensors); and have a top speed of around 45km per hour. In terms of flight time Caccia\u00a0says it will be \u201cuseful\u201d\u00a0\u2014 qualifying that as \u201cnot quite an hour\u201d \u2014 though he also notes it depends on wind conditions, and\u00a0points out\u00a0that a\u00a0drone with wings can also glide \u2014 thereby saving on battery power.<\/p>\n Range will be most limited by the radio signal which he says might be up to 1,000 meters. While the per unit price they\u2019re aiming for\u00a0is the \u201clow thousands\u201d \u2014 so the microdrone\u00a0can be \u201cwidely used and\u00a0in effect almost thrown away\u201d \u2014 though it remains to see if they can keep costs down.<\/p>\n One thing is certain: should Skeeter\u00a0get off the ground, this is going to be a very bespoke animal indeed \u2014 a drone made to measure for its military masters. But, while you\u2019re in no danger\u00a0of receiving an airfreighted Amazon package to your doorstep conveyed via an industrious team of Skeeter dragonflies,\u00a0Caccia does reckon flapping wing tech holds promise for more than just stealthy surveillance microdrones. Especially as the form factor need not be so small. And it\u2019s certainly true that military-funded technology has a habit of filtering down to the consumer space after the expensive R&D work is\u00a0done \u2014 as indeed is\u00a0the case with drone tech itself.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a market for it not just in the military but also elsewhere too, and also at different scales. There\u2019s been a very clear focus requirement to make it at this scale, because they\u2019ve been using something at this scale\u2026 but the technology can be scaled up. So one of the reasons we\u2019re looking to raise funding is we\u2019d like to make a bigger one,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of advantages you can have with a larger, flapping drone. Far, far more efficient flying from A to B. Can still hover. Much less dangerous. You can put your finger in the flapping wings as they flap and it won\u2019t hurt you\u2026 And also with a quadcopter drone, if any of the mechanism fails it falls out of the sky like a brick. Whereas the things that we\u2019re making glide in their neutral position.\u201d<\/p>\n Could a larger flapping wing drone be capable of taking payloads \u2014 say\u00a0for a\u00a0delivery use-case?\u00a0Caccia reckons\u00a0it could, though he\u00a0says\u00a0it would\u00a0need to have half a meter to a meter wingspan.\u00a0Which, sadly, suggests there\u2019s also little prospect\u00a0of urban drone delivery via giant dragonflies. Maybe just for some edge cases \u2014 such as delivering humanitarian aid to remoter areas.<\/p>\n \u201cI think delivery drones is a laughable idea,\u201d adds Caccia. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s really going to happen. It\u2019s a sort of fantasy. But I think there are uses [for a larger-scale\u00a0Skeeter] \u2014 for instance agriculture, for instance surveying large field areas.<\/p>\n \u201cA quadcopter type thing is pretty nigh useless for that because the flight time\u2019s so low. So I think it\u2019s something that\u2019s definitely worth exploring.\u201d<\/p>\n Even at the microdrone scale, the team sees potential agricultural use-cases for flapping propulsion.\u00a0\u201cOne area I\u2019d like to explore is precision agriculture inside greenhouses,\u201d says\u00a0Thomas. \u201cUsing the drones to deliver precise tiny doses of nutrients or pesticides to the plants that need them rather than dosing the whole greenhouse, that might be a good use for the existing drones once we have them in mass production and have the cost down to sensible numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n It is also investigating the potential of flapping in water, for propulsion and hydropower-generation. And is on its third prototype of a human-powered boat, also animal-inspired of course, with Caccia pointing out that\u00a0fish swim with far greater efficiency than propeller-based water crafts. He describes the craft\u00a0as looking \u201ckind of like a recumbent bicycle with a dolphin fin behind it\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is\u00a0the activity that Adrian and I first got excited about,\u201d he tells TechCrunch. \u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019re hoping to be able to get out this summer \u2014 and have a go at breaking the world speed record. Just as a demonstrator of how you can make something flapping go very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPropeller design efficiency has basically reached an asymptote, there\u2019s been no real, material\u00a0improvement in the efficiency of propellers in the last 20 years,\u201d Caccia\u00a0adds. \u201cOf course everyone thinks flapping is a completely ridiculous thing to do but nature\u2019s way of telling you you\u2019re wasting energy in water is a stream of bubbles. And fish don\u2019t produce a stream of bubbles when they\u2019re going about\u2026 So we\u2019re interested in all sorts of areas. We\u2019re making an out-board motor that uses it. It\u2019s also very, very quiet\u2026 And we\u2019re making our human-powered boat. And it would be wonderful to see larger vessels using it too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/img_32641-11.jpg?w=680\")
UK biomimetic engineering startup Animal Dynamics is being funded by the military to build a microdrone with wings inspired by the flapping flight of a dragonfly. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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