Flying an MAV Through Rotating Fan Blades ¨C It maybe possible to write into the software code of a MAVs Optic Flow Sensor Network an algorithm, which would allow it to fly though a rotating set of fan blades. Now then as difficult as this may sound the idea might not be as complicated as you think. Why is this important? Well you might have to fly the MAV through a giant set of cooling fans or a giant air duct as we often see James Bond try to get through.

First off, the Networked flow sensors are able to pick out things which are moving and that which is stationary. There was a study done once where bees had to fly through a tunnel and once they started one side of the tunnel started to move at a constant rate and the bees re-adjusted their flight path in the tunnel. With networked optic flow sensors, some things are stationary and some things are moving. Such as the objects directly in front of you move faster and off to the peripherals slower or stationary.

The math has also been figured for moving objects. All you would have to do is fly the MAV in a pattern, which reversed that which was stationary and that which was moving. In this case flying barrow roll, but keeping the fuselage and perpendicular to the fan rotating around the center of the fan, thus the opening between the fan-blade becomes the constant and the rest of the world is moving.

Since we are merely dealing with mathematics and we are merely reversing the scene and the point of view of the MAV, there would not even be a problem, piece of cake and fly right through. No, it has never been done before, yet this maybe a better system than that of a Bee or Insect.

So in essence we are bettering the 2 million years of evolution by simply adding in the opposite. It would be similar to taking a human and turning the vision up side down, while waking down the road or turning the human upside down but still being able to see right side up. In optics this is no problem. The flight might look like an expanding spiral trying to chase the hole or the area between the fan blades, the closer it gets the easier it is to stay aligned.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/