The insect sized drone is still tethered though.

Using mechanisms adopted by birds, bats, insects and snakes, 14 research teams have developed ideas for improving drone-flying performance in complex urban environments.

2022-08-05: How the biomechanics of a bird’s wing allows extraordinary maneuverability.

To quantify each bird’s stability and maneuverability, they calculated an aerodynamic factor called the static margin, the distance between its center of gravity and its neutral point relative to the dimensions of the wing. If a bird’s neutral point was behind its center of gravity, they considered the bird to be inherently stable, meaning that the flying bird would naturally return to its original flight path if pushed off balance. If the neutral point was in front of the center of gravity, then the bird was unstable and would be pushed further from the position it was in — which is exactly what must happen for a bird to be able to do a breathtaking maneuver.

When aeronautical engineers design planes, they set the static margins to achieve the desired performance. Birds, unlike airplanes, can move their wings and shift their body postures, thereby altering their static margins. Modern aircraft can’t do that, not just because their aerodynamic and inertial features are more fixed but because they would need 2 very different control algorithms. Unstable flight means constantly making corrections to avoid crashing. Birds must have to do something similar and there must be some level of cognition involved in that.

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