🐦Birds of a Feather🐦

Drones can now fly in the air thanks to a robotic wing with feathers. A recent study found that birds fly more effectively by folding their wings during the upstroke. The findings might indicate that the next step in improving the propulsive and aerodynamic efficiency of flapping drones is to fold their wings.

Even the ancestors of birds, the prehistoric dinosaurs that resembled birds, benefited from the ability to fold their wings during the upstroke as they evolved active flight. Birds are the most significant and most effective flying animals in the world right now. Therefore, they are especially intriguing as a source of inspiration for drone development. Aerodynamic analyses of various flapping techniques are necessary to determine the best strategy. A Swedish-Swiss research team has thus created a robotic wing capable of doing just that and more.

By determining which movement patterns generate the most significant force and are the most effective, the research explains why birds flap in the manner that they do. The findings can also be applied to other areas of study, such as a better understanding of how access to food and climate change affect bird migration. These findings can be applied to a wide range of prospective drone applications. Drones could be used to distribute things in one region.

Previous research has demonstrated that birds flap their wings horizontally when flying slowly. According to the new research, even though it takes more energy, the birds undoubtedly do it because it is simpler to generate the necessary force to keep themselves in the air and propel themselves. Drones can imitate this to broaden the range of flight speeds they are capable of.

By determining which movement patterns generate a tremendous force and are the most effective, the research explains why birds flap in the manner that they do. The findings can also be applied to other areas of study, such as a better understanding of how access to food and climate change affect bird migration. These findings can be applied to a wide range of prospective drone applications. Drones could be used to distribute things. Is it a bird? No, or close enough.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to affect the world economy in the upcoming years. The value of the AI business might reach $15.7 trillion by 2030, according to new PwC research. This incredible sum reflects a sharp increase from the 2018 estimated $1.2 trillion value.

The growing use of AI across various industries is one of the main factors fueling this expansion. Businesses from a variety of industries, including healthcare, banking, and manufacturing, are starting to understand how AI can boost productivity, cut costs, and spur innovation.

The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People (the "Blueprint") was published by the White House in October 2022. The Blueprint lays forth five guiding principles and associated best practices that help the development of laws and rules that protect civil rights and promote democratic ideals in the building, implementation, and governance of automated systems." These are the five guiding principles: (1) safe and reliable systems; (2) algorithmic discrimination protections; (3) data privacy; (4) notice and explanation; and (5) human alternatives, deliberation, and fallback. The White House's September publication of six guidelines for boosting competition and internet platform accountability was immediately followed by the Blueprint.

In a study by Jakob Mökander and Ralph Schroeder, they proffer that AI systems are inextricably linked to larger sociotechnical systems. Thus, an assortment of factors, including the data used and the sociotechnical environment in which it is employed, affect both the goal for which an AI system is deployed and the quality of the model it produces. Because of this, AI systems do not automatically aid the process of knowledge generation, even when the technologies at hand allow them to. Human researchers and operators must benefit the process by creating an atmosphere conducive to learning and establishing a reliable methodology for theory advancement. We present four guidelines for effective AI design here (adapted from Mökander 2021). According to them, AI-based models must be (1) cumulative, which means they must progress knowledge by improving upon the synthesis of prior information. This is significant because it also suggests that the model is abstracted to match the facts (2) holistically and thoroughly, based entirely on scientific criteria. This indicates that they are (1) open-ended, i.e., not exclusive in allowing for the incorporation of yet more, and improved, data sources and ways to include them; (2) worldwide and uniform in their application; (3) knowledge-seeking and knowledge-integration across all domains; and (4) purposeful. Purposeful indicates that AI-based models should either help social scientists better comprehend or build new approaches for exploring the processes of social change in the context of improving social theory.