January 13, 2023Feathered robotic wing paves way for flapping dronesBirds fly more efficiently by folding their wings during the upstroke, according to a recent study led by Lund University in Sweden.Even the precursors to birds—extinct bird-like dinosaurs—benefited from folding their wings during the upstroke, as they developed active flight.Therefore, a Swedish-Swiss research team has constructed a robotic wing that can achieve just that—flapping like a bird, and beyond."We have built a robot wing that can flap more like a bird than previous robots, but also flap in way that birds cannot do.By measuring the performance of the wing in our wind tunnel, we have studied how different ways of achieving the wing upstroke affect force and energy in flight," says Christoffer Johansson, biology researcher at Lund University."