Check Out the ‘Batcopter’ Drone That’s Figuring Out How Bats Swarm
- Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:35pm by
Liz Klimas
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Researchers at Boston University have built a device, informally known as the Batcopter, that is attempting to figure out how large swarms of bats manage not to fly independently and randomly without running into each other.
(Photo via BU Intelligent Mechatronics Lab Blog)
It‘s not just a question to be answered for just knowledge’s sake though. Team leader John Ballieul said that such flying techniques could then be used in large swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles used by the military.
Watch the Reuters’ report on the development and research being conducted with the Batcopter:
This Batcopter is a quadcopter composed of carbon-fiber rods, packing foam and zip ties and includes a camera to record the bats, according to the Reuters.
(Photo via BU Mechatronics Lab Blog)
“You see them kind of flutter around and dive as they’re going after insects,” Nathan Fuller who helped launch the Batcopter said as he showed the bats’ behavior with his hands. “It‘s not that they’re poor fliers. It‘s that they have very tight control over what they’re doing.”
According to Reuters, the researchers want to learn the flying ability of bats so drones could be developed to fly as a group and anticipate each other’s movements.
Batcopter point-of-view.
Version two of the Batcopter was created earlier this year as an improvement over an aluminum frame that “had its limits,” according the BU Intelligent Mechatronics Lab blog.
Here you can watch the Batcopter fly in a bat swarm:
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Afungi
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 1:02amVery lame. put a few colored reflectors on five or six of the bats add four camras one down and 3 at 120 degree angles. feed the data into a computer. It will tell you what the bats did not how they learned or how they knew not to run into each other. One simple explanation is most animals tend to turrn to the left and birds tend to fly up to exscape injury. put a group together from berth after some bumps yyou learn to go with the flow.
Report Post »Mr Galt
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 9:57pmBat flight is really quite interesting. They primarily glide and do a bit of flapping for direction and to prevent losing altitude. One thing to keep in mind with research like this: as we become more reliant on robotic devices, engineers commonly study biological organisms’ methods of locomotion to improve the mobility, performance, and energy usage of unmanned vehicles. Believe it or not, a lot of this stuff proves to be quite useful.
Report Post »Archtard
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 3:38pmBelow is an example of our tax payer funded education system’s failure to teach the written language.
“Love to know how many tax dollars aer funding this through those ridiculous grants.
Cut down on these hobby grants for looney Professors that live better than major CEOs off of their bloated entitlements!”
Those students are gathering data and developing technologies that could help our military. What have you done lately?
Report Post »Evil_Conservative
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 1:14pmgreat for recon and surveilance.
Report Post »joe magarac
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 10:43amLove to know how many tax dollars aer funding this through those ridiculous grants.
Cut down on these hobby grants for looney Professors that live better than major CEOs off of their bloated entitlements!
Report Post »QuietBeige
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 9:31pmI don’t see this as ridiculous at all! This is something that can be applied to great effect. Right now drones are not very good at anything other than performing programmed “in a perfect scenario” flight plans. This type of research could lead to something much more powerful and useful.
Report Post »eternal_vigilance
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 8:51amMaybe they should have focused on why/how mosquitoes and gnats swarm because that’s why/where the bats do!
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 8:23amI did an experiment the other day and place loose change in the bird feeder, the next day it was surrounded by fighting democrats.
Report Post »ACLUHater
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 10:11amWhen a pregnant Mexican squaw shows up at a California hospital with a broken water bag, let’s experiment with doctors and staff with balls to say, “get lost” and show them the door. Then use the bat drones to make sure that they wade south.
Report Post »TheVoice1
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 11:10amOh man did I get a good belly laugh at that one!!!!!! They do follow the “Change” rule given by the administration, lol
I’ll bet they are having close door meetings right now trying to figure out how to regulate and tax you more on the bird feeder though… Thanks so much for the post..
Stand Strong America
Report Post »Cornflake
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:54pmIt’s wonderful that they are using a drone to figure how bats swarm! Wait until next year when more jobs move to S. Korea, for cheap labor and bigger profit. Then they can use that drone on civilians to see where they swarm to in order to find food, and shelter. Wonderful!
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:28pmI thought it was called RADAR in the air for Bats, SONAR in the water for dolphins and EYES for Humans walking the streets of New York. How else does a Species that moves together keep from running onto each other? Common sense and survival of the non-crashers? Seriously; we drive cars every day and 99.9 something % survive every day. This study is a waste of money and a joke. If you want to keep drones from flying into each other use magnets to repulse a collision. Stupid ID ten T engineer’s. Drones will be drones; Man made and stupid. If you want real intelligence… a degree from MIT will be of no use. “What something is, is what it extends”. It‘s just a Law that you can’t bypass.
Report Post »heyjim55
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:52pmI had mentioned this when the Blaze was sharing the latest weapons that our military was using or close to producing. The idea the Navy has is to use stealth drones in a swarming attack like bees the trick of course is to control so many at the same time without collisions or confusion and have a devastating affect on the target and return all of them to a carrier or specially designed launch vessel. The military has long thought of using unmanned aircraft for large scale attacks on cities like what happened in both Gulf wars. We are a ways away from having that ability right now they should solve the problem of losing them by malfunctions and by enemy interception.
Report Post »A Doctors Labor Is Not My Right
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:44pmThe Global Guerrillas blog has a related story.
See here.
The Future of Drone Warfare
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2011/12/drone-bonjwas.html
(I got the link from Sipsey Street Irregulars.
See here.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/12/praxis-future-of-drone-warfare.html )
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:28pmHoly batsshhhiiiiitttttt batman
Report Post »Robin went to Mexico
Catwoman selling it on the street
The Joker will be back in D.C. soon
all is right with world
almost forgot , A small peice of the sun blew off
it’s headed this way..
Happy Newyear…………………
The-Monk
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:31pmHappy New Year to you too, USAMEDIC3008.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:19pmI have to admit: the panda is more natural looking than the plastic women. I mean why not get rid of women altogether and just get a droid that can cook and clean that’s just as artificial?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:27pmI mean seriously though: if women are not going to raise their sons up to the fathers, then what the hell good are they?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:32pmYeah it’s all part of your womb not bearing fruit, actually the final stages, because your womb has been barren for some time now, and you don’t drink the wine thereof.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:32pmDon’t you get tired of posting to yourself over and over El I As Im?
Report Post »TheVoice1
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 11:19amEliasim
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:32pm
Yeah it’s all part of your womb not bearing fruit, actually the final stages, because your womb has been barren for some time now, and you don’t drink the wine thereof.
____________
Entirely way to many meds today Eliasim!!!!! Your elevator motor is burnt completely out!
Someone call 911, Eliasim is in the rat posion again….
Stand Strong America
Report Post »chips1
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:08pmWhat we really need is an Air Jordan drone to see how mobs swarm.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:20pmGood one
.That only works in Houston.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:55pmBuilding drones to figure out “Why bats swarm?” that‘s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. What you really mean: is that you want to develop technology to use against men someday, but use the excuse of nature. Here I’ll tell you why bats swarm without millions in technology. Because they can better triangulate prey by using each others sonar. Oh, oh, and I didn’t spend millions.
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:45pmDoes it record the bats as they fly into the liberals’ fabulous “green energy” windmill-meat-grinders and get slaughtered by the millions?
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:06pmWe can’t figure out how to bring our own drones home from war, but we can figure out how ‘bats’ swarm?
WTF? This world “IS” insane.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:41pmAnd paid for with 27 million dollars of free Obama stimulis money…..Yay !
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:46pmThats a bargain. Only 27 Million.
Report Post »I hope a treadmill was included in the study.
If you include inflation, the 27M is really only $19.99 in Reagan dollars. Billy Mayes would be proud.
The-Monk
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:36pm@Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Report Post »Bats don’t do treadmills and windmills kill them.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:40pmI’m BatDrone.
If we can only figure out why the Robins return to Capistrano.
By the way, we haven’t heard anything out of the Enviors on how the Windmills are killing bats and birds by the score. But drilling for natural gas in Texas hurts lizards.
Report Post »kindling
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:42pmThey are Swallows…..not Robins!
Report Post »AMERICA4EVER
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:44pmYou mean swallows. We all know what’s up about drilling for oil and gas…lib idiots.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:48pmBut Swallows doesn’t fit into the Batman theme. I have to improvise.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:49pmYou haven heard from the enviro turds regarding dead birds because they do t really give a damn about the enviroment, what they care about is slowing down America , by starving us of the energy we need to sustain our awsome lifestyles, the goal is bring us down the the rest of the third world turds, so we are more in line with their vision of a liberal social utopia,,, themselves exempted of course…. Just more radical commies hiding behind a great sounding cause, like the children, or the poor or the elderly or minorities… None of which they give a ratsass about ….
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:59pm@Detroit
Report Post »I guess that is why all the protestors are living in tents and pooping outdoors. They are trying to show us what their vision of their America is, if the OWS guys can only contract the Black Plague, we might be able to meet Islam (who is in the 8th Century) in the middle, we can just bring the world back to the Dark Ages. At least that will make all those Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons people happy.
Evil_Conservative
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 1:12pm@kindling
“African or European swallow?”
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