Full Text:
Humans, and most other mammals, have just four muscles joining their ears to their heads. Bats have more than 20, and they use them to execute a precise series of wiggles, swivels, and twitches. Rolf Mueller, an associate professor at Virginia Tech, has discovered that small movements of horseshoe bats' ears and noses help them navigate in complex natural environments.
This research has led to the design of a bat-inspired robotic sonar head, shown here being attached to a drone, with a movable "noseleaf" and "ears."Image credit: Virginia Tech
