2022 Annual Report 2022 | Page 43

they hope to establish a permanent colony of domesticated bats in the lab .
Early integration of the flapping bat robot into the tunnel was accomplished by attaching the mechanized creature to a zipline so that it could “ fly ” in a way similar to real bats . While the team hopes to continue development of the robot until its members have a fully functional robot that can sustain its own flight , the focus right now is on the movement of the wings . The team compares this data with the Brunei bats ’ flapping motion to form a more complete picture in hopes of recreating the motion .
Team members will continue observations through the middle of August , when they will leave Brunei . After that , the local UBD team together with the Cornell student collaborator will continue the research . Throughout the experience , the students have continuously documented their experiences on the lab ’ s Twitter feed .
“ The work in Brunei gives us the ability to collect detailed quantitative data on bat biosonar , flight , and the integration of the two ,” said Mueller . “ This gives our work on bioinspired robots in Blacksburg the edge of having firsthand knowledge of how the bats solve problems that are well beyond the state of the art in engineering . Without this input , there would be little hope for any substantial advances beyond the state of the art .”
The flapping robotic bat is showcased by its 2022 senior design team at the department expo .
ANNUAL REPORT 2022
43