00:00 Bee
on wild flowers
University
of Bath sign
Exterior,
University of Bath
c.u.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering sign
Prof.
Gursul and Researcher
Wide
of laboratory
c.u.
wing and dye in water tank
c.u.
underside of wing
Wide,
researcher looking at wing in water tank
Guide Voice. Obviously, this is a bee
– but if researchers at the UK's University of Bath are
successful it could just as easily be an unmanned aircraft!
Scientists at the University are undertaking research into the
aerodynamics needed to fly very small, unmanned aircraft; and
they're turning to nature for their inspiration.
00:19 SOT: Ismet Gursul, Professor of
Aerospace & Engineering, University of Bath -
"In general we are doing research here in unmanned air
vehicles. They might be in size only a couple of feet in span to
maybe 5 – 10 centimetres in span, in size. So looking at a
wide spectrum of vehicles but most of the research we're doing is
actually looking at the smaller scale. In this we are trying to get
some ideas from nature, looking at insects, birds; we have some
other ideas we are looking at for example jelly fish or squid in
terms of propulsion mechanisms."
00:54 Tilt
down from researcher to oscillating mechanism
Wide,
researcher looking into water tank lit by laser
c.u.
flexible wing moving through laser light in water
Researcher
at computer
Reverse
of researcher
c.u.
graphic build-up on computer screen
Flashing
laser inside wind tunnel
Researcher
at computer
Computer
screen in darkened room
c.u.
computer screen
Delta
wing in wind tunnel
c.u.
delta wing and laser light
Guide Voice: Many of their research
projects are designed to track the effects of flight on a variety
of different wing types and to establish the most efficient wing
type for different needs. In the case of micro-aircraft, seen as
the future of covert military surveillance as well as being
important for civilian operations such as traffic monitoring or
fire and rescue operations, there is a need to create the power to
carry small cameras and sensors along with the ability to manoeuvre
and stay aloft for a reasonable period of time.
01:23 SOT: Prof: Gursul –
"In general this kind of low speed aero dynamics is not as
efficient as high-speed aerodynamics so you could never achieve the
same efficiency as you would get for a high speed civil transport
aircraft. But you don't have much choice. You can ask if the
insects and birds are efficient, well they are as efficient as they
could be, as much as evolution would allow them to do this. By
looking at nature you just say well the insects and birds are doing
this and we don't have many other options so we'll look at and try
to imitate these flapping mechanisms."
01:59 Researcher
at water tank
c.u.
underside of double delta wing
Wing
turning in water, dye showing vortex
Reverse,
researcher through water tank
Pull
out from eye of robot
University
of the West of England sign
Wide;
robots grouping plates
c.u.
robot with plate
Guide Voice: Scientific understanding of
the stamina and agility of birds and insects in flight is still
very limited. By unlocking these secrets, Bath's researchers hope
to chart a flight plan for the future. And like insects and birds,
it's just possible that such micro aircraft might even be able to
feed themselves.
At the nearby University of the West of England in Bristol,
scientists are creating the new breed of autonomous robots. Robots
that will carry out specific tasks – and even 'feed'
themselves while working!
02:31 SOT: Professor Chris Melhuish,
Director of Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory, University
of the West of England – "We're interested
in robots which are intelligent and autonomous. Well, by
intelligent we mean that we want robots to do the right thing at
the right time, by autonomous we mean that we want them to do
whatever we want them to do but without human intervention. One of
the big problems with autonomy is that of energy. The robots have
to get their energy from somewhere; well, you can imagine that
robots in a home or factory, they have access to electricity from
the mains. That's not the case when a robot goes out into the wild,
if you like."
03:09 Researcher
measuring power output on Ecobot
c.u.
researcher's hands
Wide
– Ecobot with light source in background
c.u.
Ecobot from above
c.u.
Ecobot, side view
Wide,
Prof. Greenam placing flies in Bio Fuel Cell
c.u.
tweezers and fly
Guide Voice: Ecobot is one such example of an
autonomous robot. It's a simple unit, designed to perform two tasks
– to move towards a light source and to send out information
about temperature in its surroundings. But the significant thing
about this robot is that it's powered by a bio fuel; in this case,
flies.
03:30 SOT: Professor John Greenman,
Micro-biologist, Faculty of Applied Sciences-
"The whole point of energy autonomy is to have some sort
of system on board that can produce electricity from the
environment. The environment could include sunlight it could
include water power or wind power. In our case, what's good about
it is we can get electrical energy from organic matter. So,
clearly, providing the fuel cells are kept fed the system would
continue to work."
04:00 20
sec. Time lapse sequence of Ecobot moving
Guide Voice: Ecobot doesn't move at any
significant rate – it took 40 minutes of time lapse camera
work to capture this 20 second sequence - but it's doing
other things too; sensing temperature and transmitting the
information over a radio to a base station – all powered by
flies! So, could the insect sized aircraft of the future just eat
and go?
04:20 SOT: Prof. John Greenman
– "It would be possible in the long term future,
with the development of contracting gels for instance, to make
things like gelbots and if you wanted to make gelbots you would
have to have an autonomous system and the biological fuel cell
could be made into a soft system, it could be made to directly
energise some of the electro active plastics and polymers that they
have, which might, in the future, be able to do some sort of
movement at a small level, at a small insect level."
04:55 End
