Caltech & University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA) Bat Bot (B2) (1)

Not for saleAcademic research robot (Science Robotics, February 2017).

Not for sale (research)Not programmableRobotic batMorphing membrane wings93 g

Not for saleShipping: Not for sale. Not available. A university research project.

Remote control: Not possible. A university research platform.

Science Robotics paper ↗PubMed abstract ↗

Overview

Bat Bot mimics the bat's highly articulated wing by driving only a few dominant joints and letting an ultrathin, stretchable silicone membrane morph with them. It achieved fully self-contained autonomous flight using virtual-constraint control, and was published in Science Robotics in 2017 as a platform for studying bat flight. Lead author Alireza Ramezani later continued the line with the Aerobat morphing-wing project.

Specifications

Category	Flapping-wing fliers · Flapping-wing robots
Released	2017
Country	USA
Availability	Not for sale (research)
Programmability	No programmability
Best for	Professionals & labs
Vision sensors	No vision sensors
Actuators	Unknown
Audio	No audio
Compute type	Unknown
Remote control	Not programmable
Size	93 g, wingspan about 47 cm per IEEE Spectrum (Caltech describes it as roughly one foot)
Locomotion	Articulated morphing armwings with a 56-micrometre silicone membrane skin, asynchronous wing and leg (tail) motions
Compute	STMicroelectronics STM32F429 microcontroller on a custom main control board, with SD-card logging, Bluetooth and an 8-channel RC receiver link to a host
Camera	None
Sensors	VectorNav VN-100 IMU, five AS5048 Hall-effect encoders at the elbows, hips and flapping joint
Runtime	Not published
Speed	Peak of about 14 m/s recorded in a diving maneuver
SDK	None