The next advance, dronebuilders say, will be to emulate the way birds change the shape of their wings by overlapping their feathers ... don’t know any aerial robot that can do that,” says ...

Its wings beat to provide extra lift, allowing it to hop as high as 20 cm (7.9 in) while moving laterally at up to 30 cm (11.8 in) per second. That said, it still uses far less power than it would ...

However, a crash during landing would be fatal for the small flying robot, as the actuators and delicate wings used are very sensitive and could be damaged as a result. “In the past, if we ...