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… to mechanical movement

Inspired by the flapping wings of the herring gull, Festo with its bionic technological model is demonstrating for the first time the technical adaptation of bird flight: the gull-like SmartBird takes off, flies and lands entirely autonomously. The key element of this artificial bird is an active articulated torsional drive unit that combines lift and propulsion in a single function. SmartBird thus attains unprecedented efficiency in flight with flapping wings – in approximation of its model from nature.