Study: Birds’ Flight Behavior Might Help Make Aviation Safer
Luciana Mangas October 05, 2016
Conducted by the University of Queensland, in Australia, researchers have found important data in order to improve flight security measures.
The answer to aviation safety might be with the birds. That’s what a new study by the University of Queensland reports. According to the website Travel and Leisure, researchers have turned to birds to study their flight behavior in order to improve manned and unmanned flying vehicles.
The study has found that birds do not crash into each other because they have developed a natural anti-collision system over time. According to researchers at the University of Queensland, airplanes of the future could use these tactics to make flying safer for everyone.
Over the course of evolution, birds have learned to avoid collision, by diverting slightly to the right at the mere risk of a crash. If we apply that same rule to airplanes and other flying man-made objects, the number of aviation crashes can be significantly reduced, the study said.
Over a hundred tests were conducted with 10 budgerigars, where they were put in a tunnel to fly. The researchers found that, at the point of collision, the birds would veer to the right to avoid it, and also change altitude.
If aircraft manufacturers were to apply those rules to an aircraft’s autopilot system, it would have the potential to greatly reduce the number of collisions reported.
“As air traffic becomes increasingly busy, there is a pressing need for robust automatic systems for manned and unmanned aircraft,” Professor Mandyam Srinivasan wrote in the study. “While we can’t say how birds solve the problem of switching to different altitudes, we can propose some simple strategies for autopilot systems and unmanned aerials vehicles to prevent head-on collisions.”
[Photo: Accipiter Radar]
