Future Drones Could Mimic Birds and Bats

The DraganFlyer X6 helicopter drone with an attached digital camera.

The flight habits of birds, bats and insects could inspire new designs of flying robots, say scientists who are using nature as a guide for developing innovative drone technologies.
As part of a broad investigation of
bioinspired flight control, 14 different research teams are stealing ideas from nature to make novel improvements to the capabilities of drones.
"Whether this is avoiding obstacles, picking up and delivering items, or improving the takeoff and landing on tricky surfaces, it is hoped the solutions can lead to the deployment of drones in complex urban environments in a number of different ways," officials from the Institute of Physics (IOP) in the United Kingdom said in a statement. [5 Surprising Ways Drones Could Be Used in the Future]