RoboSwift Morphing Surveillance Bird

Having posted only recently about TU Delft’s trials of a solar powered computer mouse, namely the Sole Mio, we find ourselves referring to yet another one of their projects, known as the RoboSwift, that could result in us seeing birds in a wholly different light in the near future.

Presently being developed with the Department of Experimental Zoology of Wageningen University, the RoboSwift is a micro aircraft – or, rather, Micro Air Vehicle – that, as one would suspect, is modelled on its real life counterpart and is capable of performing ground surveillance whilst going undetected courtesy of three inbuilt micro cameras.

Operated remotely, the imagery received from the on board cameras – one mounted in each wing looking forwards and a third mounted in the belly looking downwards – will be beamed back in real time to the pilot’s head mounted display unit allowing the operator to hone in on and loiter at will around targets of interest.

What makes the RoboSwift particularly fascinating is its ability to morph its shape in-flight by changing its wing sweep according to its flight profile, just like a real Swift, the result being a remotely piloted vehicle that is highly manoeuvrable at both high and low speeds. Not only that, but as variable sweep is used for directional control, the RoboBird can dispense with a traditional rudder – hence retaining the shape of the bird it’s modelled on so as to avoid suspicion.

We cannot help but wonder whether, what with the current development of remotely operated robotic flying insects, the future of RoboSwift will be to act, not only as a surveillance platform in its own right, but also as a drone killer or MAV countermeasure device, swooping down on insect robot drones to taking them out, thus taking after its real life counterpart even further.

You can gain further information concerning this intriguing TU Delft project via the official RoboSwift Website.

In the meantime, however, the closest most of us will get to owning a RoboSwift is by purchasing the previously featyred remote controlled CyBird which is, alas, camera free.