Nature-Inspired Inventions · Volume 010
Maple Seeds
Autorotating Micro-Drones
Every autumn, maple trees release thousands of winged seeds. Each one, called a samara, consists of a heavy seed at one end and a thin, single wing. Dropped from a branch, it falls briefly, then begins to spin. Within moments it is rotating steadily, descending slowly like a tiny helicopter and drifting on the wind away from its parent tree.
- Price
- $6.99
- Format
- PDF ebook
- Length
- 31 pages
- Edition
- First Edition
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Inside this volume
- Introduction: The Seed That Flies Like a Helicopter
- How Maple Seeds Fly
- Structure of a Samara
- The Physics of Autorotation
- History of Autorotation and Monocopters
- Translating Maple Seeds Into Engineering
- Designing Autorotating Devices
- Control of Powered Monocopters
- Ten Maple-Seed-Inspired Design Concepts
- Testing Autorotating Devices
- Failure Modes and Limitations
- Approval, Intellectual Property and Market
- Design Workbook
- Case Study — Air-Quality Sensor Seeds
Plus appendices of formulas and rules of thumb, common reader questions, a glossary and further reading.
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