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Festo BionicSwift Bird Robots Described In 1930
Festo's BionicSwift is a remarkably biomimetic robot bird.
The BionicSwifts are agile, nimble and can even fly loops and tight turns. The five artificial swallows can move in a coordinated and autonomous manner in a defined airspace by interacting with a radio-based indoor GPS (ultra wideband, UWB).
Such a performance is beautifully described in Clarence Edward Heller's 1930 story Flamingo: A Drama of A.D. 1950:
Bird-like robots now descended from the ceiling of the theatre, and where they came from I never can determine. They circled the vast audiences, dancing, twittering, chirping, and from miniature photophonic cells echoed their music, until the vast theatrical coliseum was aflood with melody.
(Read more about the bird-like robots)
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