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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Built a Robot That Doesn’t Fight the Air — It Learns to Fly With It

For decades, engineers have faced a major challenge in designing flying machines: creating aircraft that are both powerful and energy efficient. Traditional drones can take off vertically, hover in one place, and move with great agility, but they consume large amounts of energy because their propellers must constantly generate thrust. Airplanes, meanwhile, are extremely efficient because they use fixed wings to glide through the air, but they cannot stay suspended in one position like a bird watching its surroundings.

Now, scientists have developed a new type of flying robot that combines the best features of both worlds. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Stuttgart have created a shape-changing robot called Floaty — a machine inspired by birds that can remain stable in the air while using very little energy.

The research, published in npj Robotics, introduces a new approach to flight: instead of fighting against the air using powerful motors, Floaty learns how to use the air itself.

Inspired by Birds, Not Traditional Aircraft

Birds have mastered the art of efficient flight over millions of years of evolution. Many species can glide for long periods, stay airborne using rising air currents, and adjust their wings to maintain balance without constantly flapping.

Floaty takes inspiration from this natural ability. Unlike drones that depend on spinning propellers to stay in the air, the robot uses aerodynamic forces — the same forces that allow birds to glide.

The robot is designed with four movable flaps on its upper surface. By changing the angle of these flaps, Floaty can control how air moves around its body. This changes the amount of air resistance acting on the robot, allowing it to adjust its position and maintain stability.

Learning to Ride the Wind

During testing, researchers placed Floaty inside a wind tunnel where it was exposed to airflow speeds of up to 10 meters per second. Instead of using motors to fight the wind, the robot used the rising air from below and adjusted its movable flaps to control its movement.

This allowed Floaty to hover in place and remain balanced, even when external forces pushed it sideways.

The robot achieved this ability through extensive wind tunnel experiments. Scientists created a learned aerodynamic model that helped Floaty understand how changes in its shape affected its movement. Using this model, the robot could make accurate adjustments and recover from sudden disturbances, such as wind changes or physical pushes.

This represents a major shift in robotic flight technology. Instead of spending energy constantly creating force, future flying robots could intelligently use natural airflow around them.

Solving the Challenge of Stability

Creating a flying robot that can float efficiently is not easy. One of the biggest challenges researchers faced was making Floaty naturally stable.

Early versions of the robot had a flat design that caused it to tilt sideways during flight instead of correcting itself. The researchers discovered that the robot needed better balance and improved aerodynamic control.

To solve this problem, they made two important changes. First, they lowered Floaty’s center of gravity, which helped prevent unwanted rotation. Second, they redesigned the rigid flaps by adding a precise bend that improved airflow control.

After these modifications, Floaty became naturally stable. It could automatically correct its position in the air without needing excessive energy or constant control inputs.

A New Future for Flying Robots

The development of Floaty could have many practical applications. Since the robot can take advantage of upward airflow, it may become useful in environments where natural air currents are already available.

For example, Floaty could potentially be used to inspect industrial structures such as factory smokestacks, where strong upward airflows exist. Instead of relying heavily on batteries and motors, the robot could remain airborne for longer periods by using the surrounding environment.

The same technology could also inspire new approaches in other fields. Researchers suggest that similar aerodynamic control systems might one day help with guiding weather balloons or improving control systems for spacecraft during atmospheric reentry.

A Step Toward Sustainable Flight

The idea behind Floaty represents a new way of thinking about aviation and robotics. Modern machines often depend on powerful engines and motors to overcome environmental forces. However, nature shows that efficient movement can come from cooperation with the environment rather than constantly fighting against it.

Birds do not stay in the sky by producing enormous amounts of power — they understand and use the air around them. Floaty follows the same principle by adapting its shape and allowing airflow to become part of its control system.

According to researchers, this technology could lead to a new generation of flying robots that are quieter, more sustainable, and capable of operating for much longer periods.

Floaty is still a research prototype, but it demonstrates an important possibility: the future of flight may not only depend on stronger engines, but on smarter designs that learn from nature itself.

Reference: Elmkaiel, G., Schmitt, S. & Muehlebach, M. Embodied intelligence for sustainable flight: a soaring robot with active morphological control. npj Robot 4, 28 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44182-026-00086-z

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