The Eureka project  required wing morphing so the UAV could fly in severe weather. UCSD UAV has a more ambitious scope to control hover and small perch landing.

"A fixed wing aircraft capable of spot landing on a perch like the top of a pole, a building or a fence would be an ideal solution capable of efficient cruising and versatile landing for longer surveillance missions."

Student Kim Wright, analysed slow motion videos of birds morphing and wingflapping as they land on small perches. " Key behaviours observed in the birds was their use of wing sweep for pitch control in forward flight and stalled landing approaches," she said.

To study this the team built a remote controlled plane with wing loading and airfoil characteristics similar to a bird, as well as with a variable wing sweep.

"The initial testing validated the concept of using wing sweep for pitch control of the aircraft," claims the University and future research could combine twisting, flapping, and other wing

Professor Tom Bewley, programme head,has been studying atmospheric large plumes forecasting for volcanic ash clouds and nuclear reactor leaks, working on algorithms to produce quantative forecasts by combining atmospheric measurements with computer-based plume models, and algorithms to control future plume measuring UAVs.