Dove: A biomimetic flapping-wing micro air vehicle

This paper describes the design and development of the Dove, a flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV), which was developed in Northwestern Polytechnical University. FWMAVs have attracted international attentions since the past two decades. Since some achievements have been obtained, such as the capability of supporting an air vehicle to fly, our research goal was to design an FWMAV that has the ability to accomplish a task. Main investigations were presented in this paper, including the flexible wing design, the flapping mechanism design, and the on-board avionics development. The current Dove has a mass of 220 g, a wingspan of 50 cm, and the ability of operating fully autonomously, flying lasts half an hour, and transmitting live stabilized color video to a ground station over 4 km away.

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Flapping Mechanism Design and Aerodynamic Analysis for the Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.291-294.1543 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 291-294 ◽

pp. 1543-1546

Author(s):

Yi Qin ◽

Wei Ping Zhang ◽

Wen Yuan Cheng ◽

Wu Liu ◽

Hong Yi Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fluid Dynamics ◽

Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽

Mechanism Design ◽

Insect Flight ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽

The Right ◽

Flapping Mechanism

This paper introduces a biological flapping micro air vehicle (FMAV) with four wings, instead of two wings, where wing clap-and-fling of real insects has been mimicked. The total weight is 2.236g. A spatial linkage is implemented in the flapping wing system, which is symmetry. This can prevent the flapping wing MAV from tilting toward the left or the right in the course of flight. By using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD), it has been confirmed that the flapping wing system can utilize the clap-and-fling mechanism, which is essential to enhance the lift and thrust in the insect flight.

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Design of a Bio-Inspired Spherical Four-Bar Mechanism for Flapping-Wing Micro Air-Vehicle Applications

Volume 2: 32nd Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, Parts A and B ◽

10.1115/detc2008-50066 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Matt McDonald ◽

Sunil K. Agrawal

Keyword(s):

Three Dimensional ◽

Micro Air Vehicles ◽

Aerodynamic Performance ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Aerodynamic Forces ◽

Flapping Motion ◽

Wing Motion ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Flapping Mechanism

Design of flapping-wing micro air-vehicles presents many engineering challenges. As observed by biologists, insects and birds exhibit complex three-dimensional wing motions. It is believed that these unique patterns of wing motion create favorable aerodynamic forces that enable these species to fly forward, hover, and execute complex motions. From the perspective of micro air-vehicle applications, extremely lightweight designs that accomplish these motions of the wing, using just a single, or a few actuators, are preferable. This paper presents a method to design a spherical four-bar flapping mechanism that approximates a given spatial flapping motion of a wing, considered to have favorable aerodynamics. A spherical flapping mechanism was then constructed and its aerodynamic performance was compared to the original spatially moving wing using an instrumented robotic flapper with force sensors.

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Development of a novel flapping wing micro aerial vehicle with elliptical wingtip trajectory

Mechanical Sciences ◽

10.5194/ms-10-355-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 355-362

Author(s):

Qiang Liu ◽

Qiang Li ◽

Xiaoqin Zhou ◽

Pengzi Xu ◽

Luquan Ren ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Aerodynamic Force ◽

Aerodynamic Performance ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Degree Of Freedom ◽

Motion Trajectory ◽

Micro Aerial Vehicle ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Flapping Mechanism

Abstract. This paper describes a novel flapping wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV),which can achieve two active degree of freedom (DOF) movements of flapping and swing, as well as twisting passively. This aircraft has a special “0” figure wingtip motion trajectory with the 140∘ flapping stroke angle. With these characteristics integrated into the simple flapping mechanism, the aerodynamic force is somewhat improved. The model made a balance between the improved aerodynamic performance induced by complicated movements and the increased weight of the extra components in aircraft. In the driven design, Only one micro-motor is employed to drive the wing flapping and swing motion simultaneously forming the prescribed trajectory. The 23 g aircraft could reach the maximum flapping frequency of 11 Hz with the tip-to-tip wingspan of 29 cm.

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Based on Pro/E on the Design and Simulation of Bionic Dragonfly Flapping Wing Aircraft

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.268-270.960 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 268-270 ◽

pp. 960-965

Author(s):

Yu Lan Zhou ◽

Kun Wang ◽

Jing Ping Chai

Keyword(s):

Mechanism Design ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Light Weight ◽

Flight Performance ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Dragonfly Wings

In order to design an efficient, reliable, light weight, flapping wing mechanism,Improve the flight performance of the micro air vehicle and expand its application areas,this paper is concerned on the design and simulation of bionic dragonfly flapping wing aircraft .An mechanism design to simulate the movement of dragonfly wings isr presented in this paper.Then, simulation and analysis are made based on Pro/E.

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Design of a Bio-Inspired Spherical Four-Bar Mechanism for Flapping-Wing Micro Air-Vehicle Applications

Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics ◽

10.1115/1.4001460 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Matt McDonald ◽

Sunil K. Agrawal

Keyword(s):

Three Dimensional ◽

Micro Air Vehicles ◽

Aerodynamic Performance ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Light Weight ◽

Aerodynamic Forces ◽

Wing Motion ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Flapping Mechanism

The design of flapping-wing micro air-vehicles presents many engineering challenges. As observed by biologists, insects and birds exhibit complex three-dimensional wing motions. It is believed that these unique patterns of wing motion create favorable aerodynamic forces that enable these species to fly forward, hover, and execute complex motions. From the perspective of micro air-vehicle applications, extremely light-weight designs that accomplish these motions of the wing, using just a single or a few actuators, are preferable. This paper presents a method to design a spherical four-bar flapping mechanism that approximates a given spatial flapping motion of a wing, considered to have favorable aerodynamics. A spherical flapping mechanism was then constructed and its aerodynamic performance was compared to the original spatially moving wing using an instrumented robotic flapper with force sensors.

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