Design and Analysis of Flapping Wing

This paper the optimum wing planform for flapping motion is investigated by measuring the lift and drag characteristics. A model is designed with a fixed wing and two flapping wings attached to its trailing edge. Using wind tunnel tests are conducted to study the effect of angle of attack (smoke flow visualization technique). The test comprises of measuring the aerodynamic forces with flapping motion and without it for various flapping frequencies and results are presented. It can be possible to produce a micro air vehicle which is capable of stealthy operations for defence requirements by using these experimental data.

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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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The Design of New Mechanism of Birdlike MAV

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.229-231.470 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 229-231 ◽

pp. 470-473

Author(s):

Hai Zhou Zhai

Keyword(s):

Angular Velocity ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Flapping Motion ◽

Folding Angle ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Aerodynamic Property ◽

Kinematic Performance

MAV- Micro Air Vehicle which acts like bird has attracted many studies because of outstanding aerodynamic property. Former studies on birdlike MAV with flapping wing had just focused on the flapping motion, but passed over the change of flapping angular velocity and deformation of wing, therefore lost the good aerodynamic capacity. One new mechanism of the birdlike MAV is designed and studied. The mechanism can bring out 3 motions at one time, including flapping, spanning and twisting, so has movement as bird. The kinematic performance including the flapping angle, flapping angular velocity, and the folding angle etc., has been studied and compared with other relative works. The design can help the birdlike aircraft into reality.

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Advantages of an Ornithopter against an Airplane with a Propeller

Advances in Science and Technology ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/ast.84.66 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 84 ◽

pp. 66-71

Author(s):

Shigeru Sunada

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Aerodynamic Force ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Wind Gust ◽

Aerodynamic Forces ◽

Promising Candidate ◽

Flapping Motion ◽

Wind Gusts ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Before And After

The goal of our research is to develop a micro air vehicle (MAV) that is strongly stable in a wind gust. After observation of flights of an insect and a bird, we conjectured that an ornithopter would be a promising candidate as a high-performance MAV. In this paper we demonstrate the clear advantage of an ornithopter over an airplane with propellers. The variations in the aerodynamic forces acting on the two aircrafts, which generate the same thrust under the condition of no wind gust, were compared when they encountered gusts of wind. The consumed power, or alternately the period of one cycle of flapping motion and that of one rotation of propeller(s), remained constant before and after they encountered a wind gust. The following results were obtained: The variations of the aerodynamic force of an ornithopter by vertical and frontal wind gusts were slightly smaller than those of an airplane with one or two propellers. The variation in the aerodynamic force of the former by a side wind gust was smaller than that of the latter when the tip speed of the propeller and the flapping amplitude of the ornithopter were small.

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Quad-thopter: Tailless flapping wing robot with four pairs of wings

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles ◽

10.1177/1756829318794972 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 244-253 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Christophe De Wagter ◽

Matěj Karásek ◽

Guido de Croon

Keyword(s):

Micro Air Vehicles ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Flapping Wings ◽

Flight Tests ◽

Wind Gusts ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Differential Thrust ◽

Yaw Moment ◽

Novel Design

We present a novel design of a tailless flapping wing micro air vehicle, which uses four independently driven pairs of flapping wings in order to fly and perform agile maneuvers. The wing pairs are arranged such that differential thrust generates the desired roll and pitch moments, similar to a quadrotor. Moreover, two pairs of wings are tilted clockwise and two pairs of wings anti-clockwise. This allows the micro air vehicle to generate a yaw moment. We have constructed the design and performed multiple flight tests with it, both indoors and outdoors. These tests have shown the vehicle to be capable of agile maneuvers and able to cope with wind gusts. The main advantage is that the proposed design is relatively simple to produce, and yet has the capabilities expected of tailless flapping wing micro air vehicles.

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The Inertia Force of Insect-Like Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.327.186 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 327 ◽

pp. 186-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dan Zhu ◽

Qiang Wang ◽

Ming Lang Hu

Keyword(s):

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Inertia Force ◽

Inertia Moment ◽

Flapping Motion ◽

Air Vehicle ◽

Acceleration And Deceleration ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

Inertia Forces ◽

Stroke Amplitude

We used the method of theoretical modeling and simulation to study how changes in wing kinematics influence the production of inertia forces and moments in flapping flight. We examined 153 separate sets of kinematic patterns that differed with respect to stroke amplitude, mid-stroke angle of attack, acceleration and deceleration duration of flip rotation and acceleration and deceleration duration of azimuthal rotation. For each pattern, we also calculated mean stroke- or quarter - averaged values of the inertia forces and force moments. The results of the analysis may be divided into three main point: (i) The insect wing’s chordwise inertia is much higher than its spanwise inertia--higher by an order of magnitude; (ii) The influence of inertia moment of azimuthal rotation is much higher than that of inertia moment of flip rotation, so the inertia moment of flip rotation can be ignored; (iii) Consider the flapping motion is approximate symmetrical if the stroke is symmetrical and the flapping motion is absolute symmetrical if the stroke and the flip is both symmetrical, then the inertia force can be ignored.

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Flow Visualization around a Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle in Free Flight Using Large-Scale PIV

Aerospace ◽

10.3390/aerospace5040099 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 99 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Alejandro del Estal Herrero ◽

Mustafa Percin ◽

Matej Karasek ◽

Bas van Oudheusden

Keyword(s):

Flow Field ◽

Large Scale ◽

Light Sheet ◽

Flapping Wing ◽

Micro Air Vehicle ◽

Flapping Wings ◽

Free Flight ◽

True Nature ◽

Flight Direction ◽

Air Vehicle

Flow visualizations have been performed on a free flying, flapping-wing micro air vehicle (MAV), using a large-scale particle image velocimetry (PIV) approach. The PIV method involves the use of helium-filled soap bubbles (HFSB) as tracer particles. HFSB scatter light with much higher intensity than regular seeding particles, comparable to that reflected off the flexible flapping wings. This enables flow field visualization to be achieved close to the flapping wings, in contrast to previous PIV experiments with regular seeding. Unlike previous tethered wind tunnel measurements, in which the vehicle is fixed relative to the measurement setup, the MAV is now flown through the measurement area. In this way, the experiment captures the flow field of the MAV in free flight, allowing the true nature of the flow representative of actual flight to be appreciated. Measurements were performed for two different orientations of the light sheet with respect to the flight direction. In the first configuration, the light sheet is parallel to the flight direction, and visualizes a streamwise plane that intersects the MAV wings at a specific spanwise position. In the second configuration, the illumination plane is normal to the flight direction, and visualizes the flow as the MAV passes through the light sheet.

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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.

Download Full-text