Natures wonders: biomimetics; swan neck cameras (Introduction)

by David Turell @, Monday, August 31, 2015, 14:40 (3370 days ago) @ David Turell

Studying how swans and geese keep their heads steady while twisting and turning in the air has led to ways of keeping drone cameras steady:-http://phys.org/news/2015-08-secret-steady-drone-cameras-swan.html-"Swans and geese are the envy of aeronautical engineers. Even plump geese can perform remarkable aerial acrobatics - twisting their body and flapping their powerful wings while keeping their head completely still. -"They found that the neck functions much like how a car's suspension system provides a smooth ride over a bumpy road. The neck vertebrae and muscles respond with just the right stiffness and flexibility to passively keep the head steady during flapping flight, and even in mild gusts.-"'This simple mechanism is a remarkable finding considering the daunting complexity of avian neck morphology with about 20 vertebrae and more than 200 muscles on each side," said Lentink, the senior author on the study."


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