Hoang-Vu Phan

Dec 4, 2024 | nature.com | Hoang-Vu Phan |Auke Ijspeert

AbstractMost birds can navigate seamlessly between aerial and terrestrial environments. Whereas the forelimbs evolved into wings primarily for flight, the hindlimbs serve diverse functions such as walking, hopping and leaping, and jumping take-off for transitions into flight1. These capabilities have inspired engineers to aim for similar multimodality in aerial robots, expanding their range of applications across diverse environments.

Jul 31, 2024 | nature.com | Hoang-Vu Phan |Dario Floreano

AbstractBirds, bats and many insects can tuck their wings against their bodies when at rest and deploy them to power flight. Whereas birds and bats use well-developed pectoral and wing muscles1,2, how insects control their wing deployment and retraction remains unclear because this varies among insect species. Beetles (Coleoptera) display one of the most complex mechanisms.

Dec 30, 2023 | biorxiv.org | Dario Floreano |Hoang-Vu Phan

AbstractBanked turn is a common flight manoeuvre observed in birds and aircraft. To initiate the turn, whereas traditional aircraft rely on the wing ailerons, most birds use a variety of asymmetric wing morphing control techniques, validated in engineered replicas, to roll their bodies and thus redirect the lift vector to the direction of the turn.