Festo’s latest robotic creature is a semi-autonomous “flying fox.”
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According to Festo’s website, the bat’s wings are made from airtight films and a knitted elastane fabric, welded together at 45,000 points. A honeycomb structure within the fabric enables it to keep flying, even if it’s damaged. It’s able to fly semi-autonomously, communicating with a motion-tracking system of two infrared cameras that follow the bat around the space.
The flying fox joins a zoo’s worth of robotic creatures, including octopus tentacles, herring gulls, a chill little kangaroo, way less-chill insect swarms, flying penguin blimps and giant mechanical butterflies. With a 7.5-foot wingspan, I wouldn’t want this thing descending on me from the skies, but it seems friendly enough.
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Cute or terrifying? This robotic flying fox has a 7.5 foot wingspan https://t.co/ylGmY281IX pic.twitter.com/qeHHp0IscK
— Motherboard (@motherboard) April 2, 2018
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