Artist talk
Drones & Biomimicry

Micro flight vehicle performance with Simon Watkins

Thu, 18.10.2018
5:30 PM RMIT Gallery, Melbourne

The invisibility of air means that we often struggle to perceive its magnitude. Birds such as Kestrels can sense flow disturbances in air turbulence through biological sensory systems, enabling them to hover in the air with pinpoint accuracy. It is this sense of “flow” that drone expert, Professor Simon Watkins intends to mimic in drone flight, allowing drones to better cope with the instabilities in air turbulence. Watkins aims to enhance his drones through biomimicry - design modelled on biological entities and processes.

During this public event, Simon Watkins will fly a drone through RMIT Gallery. He is also exhibiting state of the art modelling of air turbulence around buildings, using Computational Fluid Dynamics.


Event series: Dynamics of Air