Holy Morphing Seagulls, Batman!

It's an idea that sounds just a little scary; Orwellian, even... if only it weren't so cool.

Researchers at the University of Florida have developed a set of micro air vehicles (MAVs) that can morph shape while in flight -- with the ultimate goal of creating autonomous spy vehicles with 2-3 years that, to onlookers below, might look like just another bird floating by.

The study, funded by the US Air Force and NASA, determined how best to reproduce the natural movements of seagulls, in machines barely larger than a children's toy (or a real bird, for that matter.)

According to the report by BBC News, engineers were able to mimic the wing actions of the medium-size birds almost exactly, creating machines that can morph into different shapes while in flight. These MAVs would be deployed in close-quartered urban environments, where the crafts could maneuver in tight areas such as alleys and apartment buildings.

"We realized we needed better agility and maneuverability to move in the city so we asked, 'well, how do birds to do it?'" explained University of Florida researcher Dr. Rick Lind. "The ultimate aim is to have an on-board autopilot so it can fly by itself through cities to search for bio-agents."

A great idea, that, as are potential search-and-rescue applications, as well as bomb detection -- although it's not hard to imagine another potential mission for the MAVs: espionage.

Those involved with the study are even testing a system that would allow an on-station MAV to shoot tiny, microphone-equipped darts into rooms or vehicles where suspicious activities might be taking place, sending any information gathered back to a central control facility. (Okay... is anyone else just a little freaked out by that?)

While the idea of changing the shape of an aircraft while in flight is hardly a new idea -- see the warping wings of the Wright Brothers Flyer, for example, or variable wing-geometry aircraft like the B-1 bomber or soon-to-be-retired F-14 -- it is a relatively new idea to couple the technology with an onboard autopilot aboard such a small vehicle. Such a system would conceivably allow an MAV to automatically change its shape to adapt to almost any environment.

The drones currently range from 6 inches to two feet in wingspan. They are similar to craft being developed by DARPA, although much smaller. That's just the beginning, though. Eventually, such craft will be shrunken to the size of insects, working in "swarms" from a hovering "mother ship" (those are the researchers' words, not ours) and even possessing the ability to change color -- allowing those vehicles to almost totally blend in with their surroundings.

"They will be like biological systems so that they mimic birds much more than they do now," said Dr. Lind.

FMI: www.mav.mae.ufl.edu/morph/education/project01/