A robot that flies like a bird

Plenty of robots can fly -- but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.

It is a dream of mankind
to fly like a bird.

Birds are very agile.

They fly, not with rotating components,

so they fly only by flapping their wings.

So we looked at the birds,

and we tried to make a model
that is powerful, ultralight,

and it must have excellent
aerodynamic qualities

that would fly by its own
and only by flapping its wings.

So what would be better than to use
the herring gull, in its freedom,

circling and swooping over the sea,

and to use this as a role model?

So we bring a team together.

There are generalists and also specialists
in the field of aerodynamics,

in the field of building gliders.

And the task was to build
an ultralight indoor-flying model

that is able to fly over your heads.

So be careful later on.

(Laughter)

And this was one issue:

to build it that lightweight

that no one would be hurt if it fell down.

So why do we do all this?

We are a company
in the field of automation,

and we'd like to do
very lightweight structures

because that's energy efficient,

and we'd like to learn more
about pneumatics and air flow phenomena.

So I now would like you
to put your seat belts on

and put your hats on.

So maybe we'll try it once --

to fly a SmartBird.

Thank you.

(Applause)

(Cheers)

(Applause)

(Applause ends)

(Applause)

So we can now look at the SmartBird.

So here is one without a skin.

We have a wingspan of about two meters.

The length is one meter and six,

and the weight is only 450 grams.

And it is all out of carbon fiber.

In the middle we have a motor,

and we also have a gear in it,

and we use the gear
to transfer the circulation of the motor.

So within the motor,
we have three Hall sensors,

so we know exactly where the wing is.

And if we now beat up and down --

(Mechanical sounds)

We have the possibility
to fly like a bird.

So if you go down, you have
the large area of propulsion,

and if you go up,

the wings are not that large,

and it is easier to get up.

So, the next thing we did,

or the challenges we did,

was to coordinate this movement.

We have to turn it, go up and go down.

We have a split wing.

With the split wing,

we get the lift at the upper wing,

and we get the propulsion
at the lower wing.

Also, we see how we measure
the aerodynamic efficiency.

We had knowledge
about the electromechanical efficiency

and then we can calculate
the aerodynamic efficiency.

So therefore, it rises up
from passive torsion to active torsion,

from 30 percent up to 80 percent.

Next thing we have to do,

we have to control and regulate
the whole structure.

Only if you control and regulate it,

you will get that aerodynamic efficiency.

So the overall consumption of energy

is about 25 watts at takeoff

and 16 to 18 watts in flight.

Thank you.

(Applause)

Bruno Giussani: Markus,
we should fly it once more.

Markus Fischer: Yeah, sure.

(Audience) Yeah!

(Laughter)

(Gasps)

(Cheers)

(Applause)