Researchers in the Faculty of Engineering in the University of Bristol, in England, in the UK, have developed a new technology to propel micro-uncrewed air vehicles (UAVs) which, like birds and insects, use flapping wings to fly. Any aircraft, no matter how small, that uses flapping wings to fly is technically called an ornithopter. A number of micro-UAV ornithopters have been developed and demonstrated in recent years, but all have used motors, gears and other complicated transmission systems to move their wings up and down. The new technology developed at Bristol removes the need for these motors, gears and complex transmissions, thereby simplifying and reducing the weight of such micro-ornithopters. The technology is a new form of ‘electromechanical zipping’, which is a means of directly converting electrical energy into mechanical energy.
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