how would you be able to replicate the wings of the birds because it is because of muscles and you cannot replicate that

Question: how would you be able to replicate the wings of the birds because it is because of muscles and you cannot replicate that
- Keywords:
  bird,
  muscle,
  wing
Asked by manu15 to Andres on 6 Mar 2017.
- Andres Rivero answered on 6 Mar 2017:
  
  Hi manu15,
  
  Very interesting question! And when I heard about morphing wings the first time I also wondered the same.
  
  One way to do this is that we can replace the muscles by some other type of actuation (An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving or controlling a mechanism or system, Wikipedia). For example, we could replace them with small motors that could move them.
  
  However, motors are quite heavy, so we also work with other types of actuation. For example, Shape Memory Alloys are a type of material that changes shape when temperature changes, and they are much lighter than metallic motors. Also, piezoelectrics are materials that could change shape when a voltage is applied.
  
  Furthermore, going back to muscles, Artificial muscles are a thing! They are called Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6mRhuR_g-E). They are rubber tubes contract and extend due to pressure, and the fibres that are wrapped around them control how much they extend or retract.
  
  Great question!
  
  Andres

Question: how would you be able to replicate the wings of the birds because it is because of muscles and you cannot replicate that