Flying lemurs contribute to aircraft design

Microelectronic device used to analyse flying actions of the Malayan colugo.

Researchers from the Royal Veterinary College London have for the first time documented the gliding behaviour of the Malayan colugo producing knowledge that could aid in the design of flexible winged aircraft.
 
Working with researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and the National University of Singapore, the team has designed a 3D acceleration sensing ‘backpack’ that allows them to gain insight into the animal’s gliding and landing behaviour.
 
The results, which are published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shine new light on the fascinating creatures that resemble flying squirrels.

Sensors in backpacks

Andrew Spence, RCUK research fellow in biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College commented: "Despite being common throughout their natural range the Malayan colugo is quite poorly understood because it's hard to measure things about an animal that moves around at night, lives 30 metres up a tree, and can glide 100 metres away from you in an arbitrary direction in 10 seconds.
 
“Our new sensing backpacks have given us an insight into the behaviour of these fascinating creatures and we can now use this new technology to learn more about other inaccessible and understudied animals in the future," he added.
 
The backpacks, which use microelectronic sensors and memory devices, share technology platforms with car airbags, the Nintendo Wii controller and the kind of memory chips found in the iPod.
 
Evidence was collected over several days before the adhesive attaching the device to the animal erodes. The backpacks were then recovered using a radio receiver and later analysed.
 

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