Once again, science takes cues from nature to improve our tech. I love these stories.
Nankeen Kestrels, a small, slim falcon native to Australia, New Guinea, and the nearby islands, are giving researchers insight into how to make drone flight in turbulent conditions safer and more steady.
Kestrels and other birds of prey keep their heads and bodies very still while hunting. You’ve seen this behavior if you’re a fan of nature documentaries. These large birds “hang” in place, maintaining their altitude without flapping. It’s called wind hovering, and they manage this specialized flight by making small adjustments to the shape of their wings and tail – basically, by changing their surface area.
Scientists are using camera and motion capture technology advancements to study two Nankeen Kestrels in one of Australia’s largest wind tunnel facilities. Researchers fit reflective markers on the birds, which Leigh Valley Hawk and Owl Sanctuary trained. These markers allow the scientists to track each minute movement and flight control techniques while the birds hover. They discovered that the Nankeen Kestrels’ heads move less than 5mm during this hunting behavior.
Image Credit: RMIT University
“Previous studies involved birds casually flying through turbulence and gusts within wind tunnels; in our study we tracked a unique wind hovering flight behaviour whereby the birds are actively maintaining extreme steadiness, enabling us to study the pure control response without flapping,” said RMIT lead researcher Dr. Abdulghani Mohamed. “The wind hovering behaviour we observed in kestrels is the closest representation in the avian world to fixed wing aircraft.”
The team wants to map these movements and use the insight to achieve steadier flight for fixed-wing aircraft like UAVs. And they aren’t stopping there. The next step is to study the birds under turbulent conditions and adapt their findings to larger-scale aircraft.
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They published ‘Steady as they hover: kinematics of kestrel wing and tail morphing during hovering flights’ published in the Journal of Experimental Biology (https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.247305).
