Swans and Cameras?

Stanford engineers have used high speed video footage to discover the stabilization of whoopers swans in achieved by using their head like a car suspension. This is remarkable considering that Swans are able to twist and flap their wings while keeping their heads still. The neck is used to provide a smooth ride over a bumpy road. The neck and vertebrae and muscles respond with just the right stiffness and flexibility to stead the head. All birds have innate stabilization to counteract the wave motion caused by flapping in flight. David Lentink was an assistant professor at of mechanical engineering at Stanford credits much of the work to a former brilliant student, Ashley Pete. She developed the idea and methodology* for the study in Lentink’s class.

The paper written by Ashley is described as so good that it was expanded and submitted to Interface where it was published. Lentink’s group covered, engineering and biology, in hopes of improving drone design and performance. This incredible design will allow us to develop and understand designs with flying characteristics based from birds. Future concepts may be based around suits that allow for human flight. However as of now, the article states "The current work has provided guidelines for a prototype swan-inspired passive camera suspension system, developed by Marina Dimitrov, one of Lentink's undergraduate students, that could allow drones with flapping wings to record better video." Better video means a better understanding, and that can lead to endless possibilities.

For the complete article visit: http://engineering.stanford.edu/news/stanford-engineers-find-secret-steady-drone-cameras-swan-necks

*Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study.