Flocking Drones UAV: Nature inspires future developments - Video

Biologically-inspired flapping-wing robots are shown. 

Image courtesy Pakpong Chirarattananon.

Researchers have been taking tips from nature to build the next generation of flying robots.

Based on the mechanisms adopted by birds, bats, insects and snakes, 14 distinguished research teams have developed solutions to some of the common problems that drones could be faced with when navigating through an urban environment and performing novel tasks for the benefit of society.

Whether this is avoiding obstacles, picking up and delivering items or improving the take-off and landing on tricky surfaces, it is hoped the solutions can lead to the deployment of drones in complex urban environments in a number of different ways, from military surveillance and search and rescue efforts to flying camera phones and reliable courier services. For this, drones need exquisite flight control.

The research teams have presented their work, 23 May, in a special issue of IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, devoted to bio-inspired flight control.

The first small drones have already been used in search and rescue operations to investigate difficult-to-reach and hazardous areas, such as in Fukushima, Japan.

A video by the COLLMOT Robotic Research Project showing a group of drones flying autonomously across a field.

A research team from Hungary believe these efforts could be improved if robots are able to work in tandem, and have developed an algorithm that allows a number of drones to fly together like a flock of birds.

The effectiveness of the algorithm was demonstrated by using it to direct the movements of a flock of nine individual quadcopters whilst they followed a moving car.

While this collective movement may be helpful when searching vast expanses of land, a group of researchers from Harvard University have developed a millimetre-sized drone with a view to using it to explore extremely cramped and tight spaces.

The microrobot they designed, which was the size of a one cent coin, could take off and land and hover in the air for sustained periods of time.

In their new paper, the researchers have demonstrated the first simple, fly-like manoeuvres. In the future, millimetre-sized drones could also be used in assisted agriculture pollination and reconnaissance, and could aid future studies of insect flight.

Once deployed into the real world, drones will be faced with the extremely tricky task of dealing with the elements, which could be extreme heat, the freezing cold, torrential rain or thunderstorms.

The most challenging problem for airborne robots will be strong winds and whirlwinds, which a research team, from the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill, University of California and The Johns Hopkins University, have begun to tackle by studying the hawk moth.

In their study, the researchers flew hawk moths through a number of different whirlwind conditions in a vortex chamber, carefully examining the mechanisms that the hawk moths used to successfully regain flight control.

The whole collection of related papers can be downloaded for free from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/9/2

NASA MRO Image: Strong evidence of Granite on Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is providing new spectral "windows" into the diversity of Martian surface materials. 

Here in a volcanic caldera, bright magenta outcrops have a distinctive feldspar-rich composition. 

Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS

Researchers now have stronger evidence of granite on Mars and a new theory for how the granite – an igneous rock common on Earth—could have formed there, according to a new study.

The findings suggest a much more geologically complex Mars than previously believed.

Large amounts of a mineral found in granite, known as feldspar, were found in an ancient Martian volcano.

Further, minerals that are common in basalts that are rich in iron and magnesium, ubiquitous on Mars, are nearly completely absent at this location.

The location of the feldspar also provides an explanation for how granite could have formed on Mars.

Granite, or its eruptive equivalent, rhyolite, is often found on Earth in tectonically active regions such as subduction zones.

This is unlikely on Mars, but the research team concluded that prolonged magmatic activity on Mars can also produce these compositions on large scales.

"We're providing the most compelling evidence to date that Mars has granitic rocks," said James Wray, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the study's lead author.

The research was published November 17 in the Advance Online Publication of the journal Nature Geoscience. The work was supported by the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program.

More information: J Wray, et al. "Prolonged magmatic activity on Mars inferred from the detection of felsic rocks." Nature Geoscience, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1994.

ESA XMM-Newton: Mysterious magnetar boasts one of strongest magnetic fields in Universe

Artist's impression of a magnetar Credit: ESA /ATG Medialab

A team of astronomers including two researchers from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory has made the first ever measurement of the magnetic field at a specific spot on the surface of a magnetar.

Magnetars are a type of neutron star, the dense and compact core of a giant star which has blasted away its outer layers in a supernova explosion.

Magnetars have among the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe. Until now, only their large scale magnetic field had been measured.

However, using a new technique and observations of a magnetar in X-rays, the astronomers have now revealed a strong, localised surface magnetic field on one.

Magnetars are very puzzling neutron stars. Astronomers discovered them through their unusual behaviour when observed in X-ray wavelengths, including sudden outbursts of radiation and occasional giant flares.

These peculiar features of magnetars are caused by the evolution, dissipation and decay of their super-strong magnetic fields, which are hundreds or thousands of times more intense than those of the more common type of neutron stars, the radio pulsars.

The magnetic field of a magnetar can have a complex structure. The most obvious, and easy-to-measure, component is the large scale external magnetic field, which is shaped (and behaves) much like a regular bar magnet's. This is known as the dipolar field.

The study was carried out on a magnetar called SGR 0418+5729. A few years ago, this star was discovered to have a relatively gentle dipolar magnetic field compared to other magnetars.

However, the star was showing the typical flaring and bursting activities seen in other magnetars, leading scientists to suggest that the star's magnetic activity might be caused by a field hidden beneath its surface.

Sometimes, the surface breaks and the hidden magnetic field leaks out (artist's impression) Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab

This new study, based on observations from ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope, has finally found evidence that SGR 0418+5729 is indeed concealing a very strong magnetic field in its interior.

"This magnetar has a strong magnetic field inside it, but it is hidden beneath the surface. The only way you can detect that is to find a flaw on the surface, where the concealed magnetic field can leak out," says Silvia Zane (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory), one of the co-authors of the study.

More information: "A variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of a magnetar," by A. Tiengo et al is published in Nature, 15 August 2013.

The Mighty Winds of Uranus and Neptune

This image of Uranus was obtained in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Rings, southern collar and a bright cloud in the northern hemisphere are visible.

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalt

The powerful winds of Uranus and Neptune are apparently confined to tight layers in both planets, researchers have determined.

These findings could shed light on how those immensely strong winds are born, and how giant planets form and evolve over time, scientists added.

Giant planets in the outer solar system, like Uranus and Neptune, are dominated by winds that can reach supersonic speeds and jet streams 10 to 15 times stronger than those found on Earth, judging by images of how clouds race by on those worlds.

Yohai Kaspi

However, just how deep those winds reached was unknown until now, hidden as those lower depths are beneath those dense layers of clouds.

"This has been an open question for the last 25 years," study lead author Yohai Kaspi, a planetary scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, told reporters.

This image shows schematic of the jet streams on the planet Neptune. Scientist have found that the atmosphere's circulation is characterized by westward flow near the equator with velocities reaching 750 mph (1200 km/hr), and an eastward flow at higher latitudes in both the northern and southern hemispheres with velocities reaching 560 mph (900 km/hr). 

The wind velocities decay towards the planet's dense fluid interior. Image released May 15, 2013. 

CREDIT: Yohai Kaspi, Weizmann Institute of Science/NASA

Kaspi and his colleagues focused on Uranus and Neptune, which are both "ice giants" — massive planets with icy atmospheres.

The winds of Uranus can blow clouds up to 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour), while Neptune's winds can reach up to 1,500 miles per hour (2,400 kilometers per hour), the fastest planetary winds detected yet in the solar system.

The researchers investigated the gravity fields of those worlds using data gathered by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.

The strength of a planet's gravity field depends on its amount of mass, and this strength can vary over the surface of a planet depending on the amount of mass lying under it.

By analyzing the gravity fields of these worlds, the investigators could deduce how their atmospheres circulated.

The scientists discovered the winds blow in relatively thin weather layers no more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) deep on both planets. For comparison, Neptune is about 30,600 miles (49,250 km) in diameter, while Uranus is approximately 31,500 miles (50,700 km) wide.

These findings help reveal how these winds originate, researchers said.

Past studies have suggested the winds on Uranus and Neptune might arise one of two ways — either shallow processes in their outer atmospheres, or deeper atmospheric mechanisms extending into their interiors.

The researchers found the windy layers of Uranus and Neptune occupy the outermost 0.15 and 0.2 percent of their masses, respectively, suggesting that shallow processes drive those winds, such as swirling caused by moisture condensing and evaporating in the atmosphere.

This image of Neptune was captured by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft during an August 1989. Neptune's Great Dark Spot dominates the center along with bright, white. To the south is the bright feature nicknamed "Scooter." 

Still farther south is the "Dark Spot 2," which has a bright core. Each feature moves eastward at a different velocity, so it is only occasionally that they appear close to each other as shown here 

CREDIT: NASA

The new study has implications for how scientists understand how planets form.

"When it comes to thinking about the effects of dynamics on planetary formation, we're saying the bottom 90 percent of giant planets is static," Kaspi said.

In the future, the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn and NASA's Juno probe that is scheduled to reach Jupiter can analyze the gravity fields of those giant planets and help better explain their winds as well.