06/04/12 — Phys.org—Robotics researchers in Spain and the U.S. are studying bats for their design work on drones. Bat wings are highly articulated, with skeletons similar to those of human arms and hands. The researchers have built a drone that mimics the way a bat changes its wing shape in flight. Bats achieve an “amazing” level of maneuverability, says a researcher, mainly because of their capacity of changing wing morphology during flight. Specifically, the "Batbot" replicates the way a bat changes the profile of its wing between the downstroke and upstroke. By folding wings toward their bodies on the upstroke, bats use…

02/26/10 — Designed for the irregular warfare environment, Northrop Grumman’s “Bat” UAS offers real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, communications relay, and future capabilities in a modular system that is fully autonomous. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) today that it has flown the first in a new series of Bat unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in January, 2010. Configured with a 12-foot wingspan, the Bat-12 incorporates a highly-reliable Hirth engine as well as a low acoustic signature five-blade propeller. The new configuration increases the mission portfolio of Northrop Grumman’s scalable Bat UAS product line. Northrop Grumman has been engaged in the development of unmanned systems…