[litenboll]

First thought when reading the title was that it will look very fragile and clumsy when walking (even real birds do) and that was confirmed by the first video. What's the purpose of actually mimicing bird legs and feet? Why not use something more simple like wheels on a board that has a spring for example? I expected the article to justify why, but to me it seems like the big thing was the jumping itself, which does not require complex bird anatomy necessarily. There's probably a good reason that I missed, but this feels like a too direct translation of the bird feature, unless the purpose is specifically to make it look and move like a real bird.

[lynguist]

> the big thing was the jumping itself, which does not require complex bird anatomy necessarily

No, this is exactly the opposite. The jumping requires exactly this specific anatomy for so many reasons. It stores energy in the joints, it has a specific balance, the jumping works at multiple angles, etc, etc. You can’t do better than that for this specific purpose.

[ivell]

Wheels need a reasonably flat surface to be efficient. Walking is more efficient than flying for short distances..

[numba888]

> reasonably flat

comparing to wheel size. one can use bigger light wheels. that would make landing on short runways possible. besides, wheeling is much easier than walking. two wheels balancing and rolling around is not a problem today. but.. without legs it's just an common airplane, nothing to talk about. the best of both? put small motorized wheels instead of flat platforms for feet.

[bookofjoe]

2 more things that can break/go wrong/stop working resulting in mission failure.

[numba888]

1 working wheel is enough for balancing. they can be as simple as just a motor in rubber. it's more likely tail or wing will fail than both motors

BTW, here is how it works from Boston Dynamics, it can jump:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHJKGgwpWY8

[bookofjoe]

Playing your song: https://www.donutlab.com/motor/

[scripturial]

Avoiding cheap surveillance technologies seems like a big deal. Although I assume once the government works out what you can do with it, it’ll become illegal pretty quickly. I assume this research will attract DOD grant funding pretty quickly. Students have to eat somehow.

[pixxel]

Spy drones than mimic birds.

[gattr]

Makes you wonder what will come first:

- energy-efficient, long-lasting, mechanically optimized robotic "birds"

- good-enough understanding of the avian brain connectome & operation, such that all you need is a bunch of fine wires stuck in it, and a small CPU sending commands (local and remote operation, etc.)

[9dev]

It’s going to get interesting when the conspiracy theory becomes reality. Imagine the future historians browsing the Reddit archives going like, ”they knew!!“

[oefrha]

What conspiracy? CIA had spy pigeons among other animals half a century ago, which is public info by now.[1]

They are very proud of it too.

> While many of the animal programs studied by CIA were never deployed operationally—or failed for a variety of technical, logistical, or behavioral reasons—collectively they demonstrate the incredible innovation and creative thinking that has come to characterize everything that our Directorate of Science and Technology does.

[1] https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/natural-spies-animals-in-e...

[0xEF]

Every good conspiracy theory starts with a truth, I guess.

I had no idea about the CIA thing. I just always assumed the "birds aren't real" meme to be a way of showing how ridiculous the police state is going to become in the next decade or so as surveillance gets more and more weaponized against the people it was supposed to protect.

[butlike]

I always took "birds aren't real" to be an absurdist take on paranoia

[JKCalhoun]

Like the Chinese one?

https://interestingengineering.com/military/chinese-special-...

[mapt]

Military contractors have been producing teaser videos on the subject for maybe fifteen years now.

[Super_Jambo]

More likely that sensible mainstream journalists will laugh at people under Govt surveillance because they sound like the reddit conspiracy nuts from their youth...

[Cthulhu_]

https://www.reddit.com/r/BirdsArentReal/

[veunes]

It’s like the ultimate bio-inspired stealth tech.

[veunes]

Maybe there’s a niche application we’re not considering where bird-like movement is crucial?