On the Wing – This bird-like drone is incredibly agile and efficient

The northern goshawk is a fast, powerful raptor that flies effortlessly through forests. This bird was the design inspiration for the next-generation drone developed by scientists of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a university in France. Led by Dario Floreano, they carefully studied the shape of the bird’s wings and tail and its flight behavior and used that information to develop a drone with similar characteristics. “Goshawks move...