Robot Reviews

Batman will never be able to save anyone in a real-life scenario, but bats can ... robot bats, that is. Researchers at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) are making substantial progress in making this sci-fi idea into a reality.

At this point, the researchers have managed to be at a stage advanced enough to declare that the outside world will be seeing an actual flying model no later than this summer. Their next step is to develop a tiny computerized control system and a built-in power source.

The possible applications in the field of surveillance are quite enormous. They can be sent to search for victims of a crash, landslide, or any natural calamity. Of course, there's always the possibility of using them on the battlefield where they can be tasked to look for troops trapped behind enemy lines.

Dark Knight technology

The cool thing about Batman was not his strength or agility. Rather, it was his awesome gadgets and the technology that came with them. To come up with this robot bat, the researchers at NCSU had to incorporate state-of-the-art technologies which, even by themselves, are an outstanding feat already.

For example, the entire skeleton of the robot only weighs a mere 6 grams. But what the researchers want is a frail 6-gram frame that already packs a lot of maneuvers. You see, a real bat would have cartilages, tendons, and bones that can perform a variety of maneuvers but can easily return to their original configurations.

To achieve this, the researchers intend to use a collection of smart materials. Dr. Stefan Seelecke, advisor for this particular project revealed that they are already employing a "shape-memory metal alloy that is super elastic for the joints." Then for the muscular system, they're using another special alloy that reacts to heat coming from an electric current. Tiny wires, the size of a human hair, made of this alloy contract much like real muscle fibers.

This property opens up a lot of valuable potentials. One of them is being able to render the robot bat the ability to react to sudden changes such as rapidly changing air currents.

Why bats?

Flying robots are nothing new. In fact, they're being used by the military as we speak. However, there's a big difference between robot planes or helicopters and those engineered to mimic the characteristics of actual flying creatures. Imagine a robot plane navigating inside cramped spaces like a dense forest or a collapsed building - good luck!

With bats, that's not impossible. Remember that these flying rodents dwell in the crevices of narrow caves, where extreme aerial navigation is a minimum requirement.

You can read more about it at the NCSU Newsroom page.