Hummingbirds Still Top Drones When Hovering

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and science still has a long way to go before it catches up with nature, especially in the world of drones. Hummingbirds are truly wonders of nature, as they are able to hover in mid-air through a rapid flapping of their wings, which is a position that micro drones intend to achieve as they go about with their surveillance business. The equivalent that researchers used to compare micro drones to were hummingbirds, in an effort to determine the capabilities of majority of modern micro drones.

Apparently, the international team of researchers that examined a few species of hummingbirds realized that our feathered friends managed to achieve an efficiency level that was approximately 20% better than the most advanced micro drones out there when it comes to hovering, although where flying is concerned, the robotic craft were more or less close to the hummingbird’s efficiency level.

Researchers from Stanford University, the Eindhoven University of Technology, the University of British Columbia, and Wageningen University in the Netherlands were participants in this study, and in order to make sure that micro drones can hover for long periods of time, the issue of energy efficiency definitely needs some looking into. Still, you can be sure that until the ordinary drone overtakes the hummingbird in terms of efficiency, it is going to remain the “model” to beat.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: Drones, hummingbird