A BIRD-LIKE, shape-shifting robot built to mimic the way the common swift alters its wing geometry during flight could slip in unnoticed among a flock of real birds.
Equipped with twin cameras that beam back three-dimensional video, it could allow people to fly virtually with real birds and gain a first glimpse of how the swift flies in its natural environment. “They are really agile and to study them you have really got to fly close to them – and look like them,” says David Lentink of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “Some birds will attack any model aircraft that…
