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.

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)

(Applause)

(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,

it 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 ...

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 a 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, I think that we should fly it once more.

Markus Fischer: Yeah, sure.

(Laughter)

(Gasps)

(Cheers)

(Applause)