WJZ

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.

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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.

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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.

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