Jarno: When I was studying in England, my knowledge about mechanical- and electronical engineering started to expand. I soon discovered that flapping wings without external powersupport would be impossible. During the more boring lectures I started sketching and writing down ideas about how wings could be powerassisted by actuators during their flapping movement. Back then there were no easy accessible components to, for example, collect arm movement data. The last few years a lot of exciting consumer devices, like Wii controllers and Smartphones, have been developped which changed my original ideas drastically..
A problem used to be, where do I find batteries light enough to be able to power strong electromotors for a longer continuous period. Since the introduction of Lithium Polymer batteries on the consumer market, this problem wasn’t relevant anymore. Components like these are very affordable and easily accessible, through webshops and online marketplaces.