Research & Development Projects

In its earlier years, Animal Dynamics was first formed as a spin-out from the University of Oxford primarily focusing on bio-inspired research and development projects funded by DSTL and DASA. The bio-inspired qualities of the products and learnings from nature helped formed the name; Animal Dynamics. We took influence from nature and bio-inspiration to design projects including a Nano Uncrewed Aircraft System, Skeeter, and an Uncrewed Underwater System, Raydrive.

SKEETER RAYDRIVE

SKEETER

NANO UNCREWED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

Skeeter took influence from dragonfly flight and was a project developed during a DSTL-funded Nano UAS programme intended to develop novel systems for use in covert operations. The Nano UAS emulated the appearance of a dragonfly and featured a resonant system driving two pairs of flexible flapping wings. The system successfully demonstrated great endurance and weather tolerance.

SKEETER

Technical specifications

WEIGHS
< 200G

20 KT GUST <br class="hidden-xs">TOLERANCE

20 KT GUST
TOLERANCE

20 MINS FLIGHT <br class="hidden-xs">ENDURANCE

20 MINS FLIGHT
ENDURANCE

FLAPPING WINGS <br class="hidden-xs">PROPULSION

FLAPPING WINGS
PROPULSION

RAYDRIVE

UNCREWED UNDERWATER VEHICLE

Raydrive was a project developed during a 6-month DASA funded competition: Autonomy in Challenging Environments. Raydrive successfully demonstrated bio-inspired flapping-fin propulsion, and has the potential to provide robustness, manoeuvrability, collision tolerance, and the ability to operate in cluttered environments clogged with weeds, mud and silt. Bio-inspired systems are inherently covert, with low obstacles, indistinguishable from natural background noise. With further development, the large central body could house a variety of different payloads depending on the operational requirement.