Undulating Their Bodies Keeps Flying Snakes From Tumbling Out of Control
Freeman writes:
Flying snakes can glide as far as 78 feet (24 meters) without tumbling out of control because they undulate their bodies mid-flight, as if they were swimming through the air. This seems to be a specialized strategy to stabilize their flight rather than an evolutionary remnant of general snake behavior, according to a new paper in the journal Nature Physics. The work could eventually lead to a new, improved control template for dynamic flying robots.
[...] The work nonetheless should prove useful for the improved design of robots inspired by the movements of flying snakes. "The newly discovered kinematic components of aerial undulation... provide the theoretical basis for design of a bio-inspired flying snake robot that glides using aerial undulation as a control template," the authors wrote, adding that this "should markedly simplify the control of a flying snakelike robot."
Journal Reference:
Isaac J. Yeaton, Shane D. Ross, Grant A. Baumgardner, et al. Undulation enables gliding in flying snakes, Nature Physics (DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-0935-4)
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