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The goal of BIRD is to replicate the motion of a flying bird. There are many different aspects to analyze including "in flight" motion as well as "take off" and landing flight motions. Ultimately, BIRDS BIRD will design a flapping wing mechanism which should fly given the right material and equipment.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKokxPRtck
After more researchreviewing all the information, we wanted our mechanism to replicate the rotation a bird has in it's wings meaning we needed two degrees of freedom instead of just one as seen in the Ted Talks experiment. Due to the time constraints of the semester, our first prototype will only encompass the flapping motion seen in bird flight. The first prototype of the mechanism will be made of wood. We want to fully grasp each degree of freedom separately and then try to combine them in the end. Ultimately, we can take some insight from the shoulder mechanism Dr. Deshpande introduced at the beginning of the year to see how to combine both motions with one motor.