Headline News

Team Of Roboticists Unveil Bat Bot, The World’s First Flying Robot Bat

A team of scientists has just built the first robot that looks and flies like a bat. They named it, of course, Bat Bot.

Published

9 years ago

February 2, 2017

Geoffrey Grider

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A team of scientists has just built the first robot that looks and flies like a bat. They named it, of course, Bat Bot.

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4 (KJV)

Bat Bot is nothing short of an engineering marvel. It weighs in at only 3.3 ounces—about as heavy of two golf balls. With a silicone membrane stretched over its carbon-fiber skeleton, a head crammed with an on-board computer and sensors, and five micro-sized motors strung along its backbone, Bat Bot is capable of autonomous, flapping flight. Designed by trio of roboticists led by Soon-Jo Chung at Caltech, it was unveiled today in the journal Science Robotics.

What makes Bat Bot so remarkable is just how hard it was to mimic a bat’s natural flight. If flying was an art form, bats would make fixed wing-pilots looks like they’re finger painting. That’s because with each flap of their wings, “bats use more than 40 active and passive joints, [alongside] the flexible membranes of their wings,” says Chung. In addition, bats take advantage of a whole suite of other hard-to-imitate biological tricks, such as bones that adaptively deform each wing-beat.

How Bat Bot Flies | PopMech

“Arguably, bats have the most sophisticated powered flight mechanism among animals,” the roboticists write in their paper.

To build Bat Bot, Chung’s team first had to dispense with the fantasy that they could just mechanize flapping bat wings, joint by joint. “It’s impractical, or impossible, to incorporate [all 40] of these joints in the robot’s design,” says Chung. Even with today’s most advanced robotic technology, you’d just end up with a heavy, clunky robot that would never make it off the ground.

Instead, the trio pored over biological studies of bat flight, including a extremely helpful 2008 study on bat joints authored by the biologist and Discovery Channel host Dan Riskin. Scouring the studies, they sought to understand which of these 40 joints they could dispense with and which were absolutely vital.

In the end, Chung’s flying robot has a total of nine joints. And while Bat Bot is a seriously advanced piece of machinery, it is still a pretty simple bat. For example, Bat Bot’s carbon-fiber “fingers” don’t have knuckles or knuckle joints. And bat bot doesn’t actively twist its wrists like a normal bat does.

There are other simplifications too. While bats’ wing membranes can have different levels of stiffness in different places, Bat Bot’s hyper-thin silicone membrane (which Chung’s team built themselves) is uniformly flexible.

Nevertheless, Bat Bot’s elegant flight looks almost indistinguishable from its biological cousin. It fluidly and independently tucks and extends its wrists, shoulders, elbows, and legs as it glides through the air. If you aren’t a biologist, then you’ll be hard pressed to spy the mechanical differences between Bat Bot’s flapping and the real thing.

Even cooler, Bat Bot is not remote controlled. Leveraging a lightweight suite of sensors and computers, it can autonomously perform a flapping glide, bank turns, and sharp dives. But Bat Bot is not perfect—yet. It can’t yet ascend in the air; it can only flap its way through a controlled glide. Escalating flight, as well as a bat’s quintessential upside-down perch, are two capabilities Chung’s team is working on right now.

Bat Bot’s sheer complexity makes you wonder: Why wrangle with the complex and fickle flight of bats in the first place when we already have nimble flying robots on the market, such as those drone quadcopters?

Chung’s team argues that Bat Bot’s softness and lack of rapid-spinning propellers make it safer around humans than other flying robots. Chung imagines that future incarnations of Bat Bot could fly about new building sites mid-construction, perching on beams to snap photos, or to spy mistakes or other structural flaws. If one bumps into a construction worker, no problem.

Having once taken a rogue quadcopter to the face, I can attest to their assertion that propeller-to-forehead impact with humans is really painful and should be avoided at all cost.

Perhaps it would be easier just to build a safer quadcopter. But hey, we’re not here to question this plucky robot. Bat Bot’s raison d’être is even more straightforward. First, Bat Bot is awesome. Second, we figure Bat Bot is highly effective nightmare fuel for those already afraid of bats, and what’s not to love about that? source

Related Topics:Bat Bot Robots Technology

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Donald Trump

Donald Trump Says He Is Doing Good Deeds In Order To Get To Heaven, Why Hasn’t Any One In The White House Faith Office Told Him How To Get Saved?

Published

13 hours ago

August 19, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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President Trump is surrounded by professing Christians at the White House, yet he has no idea of the biblical plan of salvation. Why is that?

President Donald Trump is surrounded by Christians on every level, he even created the White House Faith Office where he installed Paula White as his spiritual leader. He has professing Christians like Christian Nationalist Pete Hegseth around him every day, you would think that someone in his circle would have given him the gospel by this point. You would think that, but you’d be wrong. Donald Trump told Fox News the other day he is busy working his way to heaven by stopping wars around the world. Nope, that’s not it, Mr. President, not by a long shot.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:5-7 (KJB)

Let me tell you what will not save your soul: baptism, the sacraments, confession to a priest, the Eucharist, mass, good works, good deeds, prayers of the saints, prayers to the saints, the Sinner’s Prayer, Mary, predestination, candles, amulets, the Universe, being raised in a church or attending a church service. Salvation exists in a payment made by Jesus Christ on the cross on your behalf. When you receive that payment by faith, His shed blood is applied to your account, and your sin debt satisfied before God. Asking Jesus into your heart does not ‘do the trick’, and neither does simply asking God to forgive you. You have a debt, and only a payment He approves of will be accepted. That payment is free, that payment is His shed blood, do you want it or not? That’s the price of admission to Heaven, Mr. President, your works don’t factor into the equation.

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Donald Trump

A Surreal Scene At The White House As The Combined Leaders Of Europe Were Lined Up In Chairs Like Schoolchildren As President Trump Lectured Them

Published

15 hours ago

August 19, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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The assembled leadership of Europe were sat down like schoolkids around the desk in the Oval Office while ‘teacher’ Trump lectured them on Russia and Ukraine

It was a wild scene in the Oval Office yesterday as the leaders of Italy, Germany, France, Finland, the president of the EU Commission, and the NATO secretary general were all put in chairs around the Resolute Desk while President Trump pontificated on how to proceed with ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. It was crazy, just look at the disdain on all their faces, like something out of an end times movie. That’s because we are living in an end times movie, and that’s the memo.

“For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.” Isaiah 29:10 (KJB)

On the Podcast yesterday, I talked about why Putin only wants to deal with Trump, and that’s because Putin knows that, in the end, he gets just about everything he wants from Trump that he would never get from talks with anyone else. All Trump wants is the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the war regardless of how the war is actually brought to an end. Trump becomes Putin’s proxy to deliver and dictate the terms to Zelensky and Ukraine. Fun fact, Putin will never, in a million years, agree to a ‘peace deal’ that is not highly slanted in his favor including acquiring parcels of Ukrainian territory he needs to rebuild the old Soviet Union. Don’t get me wrong, I hate war and would love to see peace in Ukraine, but that’s not going to happen because “and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

European leaders discuss Ukraine security guarantees after Trump talks

FROM THE GUARDIAN UK: Monday’s White House meeting shed little light on Putin’s territorial terms. The Russian leader has demanded Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk, but Zelenskyy has set a firm red line against ceding land beyond the present occupation or legitimising Moscow’s control.

Some observers say that for all the diplomatic manoeuvring, there has been little real movement towards ending the war. “Nothing had happened in Anchorage on Aug. 15th. Nothing happened yesterday in Washington DC,” Gérard Araud, the former French ambassador to the US, wrote on X. “Putin, Zelenskyy and the European leaders were all relieved: they had avoided Trump taking unwelcome decisions. It was the triumph of empty vagueness and meaningless commitments.” READ MORE

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

NTEB PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST: Putin Is The Big Winner In Alaska Ukraine Summit As Macron And Starmer Rush To White House For Zelensky Meeting

Published

2 days ago

August 18, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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President Trump whispered ‘I’ll help you’ to Vladimir Putin and then gave him Ukraine at the Summit in Alaska paving the way for reemergence of the Soviet Union

With Emmanuel Macron leading the way, European leaders rush to Washington DC to plead Zelensky’s cause after Trump hands Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter at Summit in Alaska. As we have said before, it’s a strange thing to watch ‘peace talks’ with the aggressor nation that leave out the victim nation that was attacked. It’s quite similiar to the deal made during WWII between Germany and Russia to decide the fate of Poland. It feels like we’ve seen this movie before, and that’s the memo.

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJB)

On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, students of history know exactly what Vladimir Putin is up to, couldn’t be any more clear. Putin is working to restore the old Soviet Union and lay the groundwork for WWIII. US President Donald Trump is way out of his league here, as was evidenced at last week’s Ukraine Summit in Alaska. Remember back in 2012 when former president Barack Obama whispered to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that ‘I’ll have more flexibility after the election’, and how outraged we all were by that seeming capitulation? Last week, President Trump whispered to Vladimir Putin ‘I’ll help you’ and then gave him Ukraine. New boss same as the old boss. Now the heads of Europe led by Macron are in Washington DC to beg and plead for Zelensky and Ukraine, how’s that going to go? On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, we show you.

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