Researchers at Stanford taught parrotlets like this tiny bird, Gary to fly to perches made of different materials and the successful land of Gary on the Teflon reveals new inspirations to researchers to develop robots that land like a bird.
Diana Chin, a graduate student at Stanford University allied with study stated that “Modern aerial robots usually need either a runway or a flat surface for easy takeoff and landing. For a bird, almost everywhere is a potential landing spot, even in cities.”
“We really wanted to understand how they accomplish that and the dynamics and forces that are involved.”
The most advanced robots are nowhere near the ability of animals in dealing with objects. Researchers gathered data on how birds, like Gary, can land on different surfaces such as a variety of natural and artificial perches covered in foam, sandpaper, and Teflon.
One application of this work is having perching robots that can act as a team of tiny little scientists that make recordings, autonomously, for field research in forests or jungles.
Roderick said “I really enjoy drawing from the fundamentals of engineering and applying them to new fields to push the limits of what has been previously achieved and what is known.”