The 20th century, when the airplane emerged, was the age of physics. Entering into the 21st century, I think that, in a sense, we are in the age of biology.

CAIV aims to trigger a paradigm shift for small aircraft air mobility in a future society, and to create a new type of energy-saving, recycling-based, sustainable engineering.

Looking back over the history of human progress, we can see that humans have always sought to prosper. We have pursued science and technology to increase human population and productivity. However, the quest for high efficiency has led to mass production and mass consumption, resulting in an unsustainable technology system. To me, the global warming and climate change we are currently experiencing seem to be major byproducts of this technological system.

Looking at the evolution of living creatures in nature, we can see that they have coexisted and prospered without any environmental destruction. There is a contrast between humans and other living things in terms of the art of working with nature to live or a system of “technology”.

Whereas human beings have used metals, fossil fuels, and nuclear power as energy to create products at high temperatures and pressures, living creatures have used organic matter that originally existed on earth, the sun, and wind as energy to self-organize and build a sustainable, recycling-oriented society with low environmental impact.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Leonardo da Vinci studied the flight of birds and made various sketches. Da Vinci created the prototype of the airplane, and the idea of creating a rotating wing inspired by the flapping of birds’ wings in the natural world was a novel one.

His sketches showed that flapping wings which are larger than human-size can be powerful enough for flight, but even now a flapping flying machine of this size has yet to be built. After da Vinci's concept, the Wright brothers were the first to build a flying body with two fixed wings stacked on top of each other, as they thought a model with fixed wings would be better than one with flapping wings.

Since they did not have a motor at the time, they used a steam locomotive to turn the propeller instead. At CAIV, we are currently developing a robot with a body measuring a few centimeters that can fly by flapping its wings.

Current AI relies on a computational method whereby you build a large database of existing examples and induce “intelligence” through iterative machine learning.

Living creatures in the natural world use their intelligence to evolve and discover new things while interacting with their environment. Existing AI is not yet “intelligent” from a biological perspective.

There are two types of living creatures: those with “active intelligence” and those with “passive intelligence.” We can refer to these as “yang intelligence” and “yin intelligence.” Current AI focuses on yang intelligence, but little research has been done on yin intelligence.

At CAIV, we are trying to clarify the fundamental design principle of stable flight by explaining how these two types of intelligence, yin and yang, interact to achieve robustness in living creatures.

For example, a flying creature tries to return to its original posture after a disturbance such as a gust of wind, but after that, it is relaxed. By imitating these simple controls, we can achieve more efficient and stable flight compared to continuous control, which is a traditional way to regulate a flight.

For example, the small flapping robots that we are developing, shown in these two videos, are not equipped with any controls. In the upper video, a rigid mechanism is used like an existing squadron, but in the lower video, a flexible mechanism is used for the fuselage, imitating an organism. The flexible mechanism generates the torque of flapping and the momentum of rotation, which cause the torso to vibrate and move passively, generating the opposite torque as well. In addition to changing the material of the fuselage, I think that by adding passive motion such as fuselage deformation, flight will become more stable.

We would like to use CAIV as a learning platform for students to learn about the history of human technological innovation and its reflection.

At CAIV, there are mechanisms that allow students to learn on their own initiative. It differs from the traditional style of university education, where you get credit for a class and do your graduation research on a topic set by advisers.

Students are given chances to choose and participate in projects that they are really interested in from variety of options, and learn by acquiring the knowledge they lack while engaging in the process of research.

Chiba University is traditionally famous for its design engineering, and fortunately two faculty members specializing in industrial design are involved in CAIV. We are trying to incorporate designs that combine function and aesthetics.

By adopting a proactive learning approach and a design perspective, we are able to produce motivated, highly skilled students who go out into society with an awareness of sustainable technology.

We want our students to develop the ability to thrive while adapting to a changing environment in order to achieve their targets. I believe this is one of the strengths that we can learn from living creatures.

In recent years, R&D on flying robots and drones has become fiercely competitive around the world. In particular, the most important elements in realization of an "air mobility revolution" are research and development on intelligent flight robotics technology that satisfies the safety, efficiency, and environmental requirements of next-generation electric air mobility, as well as the training of young people in the drone field.

In this course, we will conduct interdisciplinary research on intelligent and robust flight systems based on insects and birds to create innovations for the next generation of flying robots. In addition, we will develop and establish the most advanced elemental technologies for drones through industry-academia collaboration, and by combining optimization from the perspective of mechanical performance and beauty from the perspective of design, we will create a "biomimetic industrial design" for drones, aiming to contribute to the construction of an air mobility industrial base for the society of the future.