Mueller research collaboration featured in New York Times

There are roughly 1,400 species of bat in the world, and the way they drink water is somewhat common. It’s called, “skim drinking on the wing,” and it essentially involves flying close enough to the surface of water to grab a drink, but operating with such high precision that the water does not go up the bat’s nose or cause the animal to fall beneath the surface.

The study brings new insights into the smallest movements of bats when navigating at very low altitudes, a body of work that could inform the design of highly maneuverable aerial vehicles. With the study including flight which touches the surface of water, those vehicles could be deployed in similar fashion for environmental remediation and water sample collection.

The work was conducted by two research groups. One was led by Rolf Mueller, the Raymond E. and Shirley B. Lynn Professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Mechanical Engineering. The other was that of Sunghwan (Sunny) Jung, Professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. Their work was published by The Royal Society and then the New York Times.