Birds use a powerful, explosive force generated by their legs to leap into the air and start flying, but building a robot that can withstand the high acceleration and forces involved has proved difficult. Now, Won Dong Shin at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne and his colleagues have built a propellered flying robot, called RAVEN, that can walk, hop and jump into the air to start flying, with legs that work like a birds’. Watch the video [Source: New Scientist on youtube.com]
