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Spinning Maple Seed May Help National Defense
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CBS
A University of Maryland engineering student is using Mother Nature to develop an invention that could be helpful to national defense.
Suzanne Collins explains it's a flying machine based on the motion of a spinning maple seed.
Sending a small remote-controlled craft to a biological emergency is one possible application for graduate student Evan Ulrich's invention.
It could also drop in on an enemy nation with its camera flashing, yet look like a bird. It could navigate caves or map territory. The aerospace engineering Ph.D. candidate says it's better than a drone that only photographs in one direction.
"What you can do is phase the picture taking to the direction you want to look because it's looking in all directions 10 times per second. So if you want to look forward have the camera flash when pointing forward," said Ulrich.
Ulrich has formed a company, made various sizes and is getting a patent, hoping the Defense Department might be interested in his invention. The research at the Clark School of Engineering in College Park was funded by the Army and is based on the fluttering of a maple seed.
"Nature has worked on this for millions of years and perfected it and it has optimal dynamic properties. All we had to do was leverage that and put some propulsion on it," said Darryll Pines, dean of the Clark School of Engineering.
Using a maple seed to develop an invention is part of a larger school of thought at the engineering school. Mother Nature has tested certain ideas for eons, so why not take advantage of them.
Other students are studying the wing action of a bee and developing another lightweight flying machine. Their research on a bat's eye may let those devices navigate a caves or tunnels when they aren't able to be controlled by man.
For more on this invention click here.
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