Wing Mechanization Design and Wind Tunnel Testing for a Perching Micro Air Vehicle

This paper describes the development of a mechanized wing concept for a perching micro air vehicle. The wings are capable of rotating in pitch at two spanwise joints to simulate the motion of a bird’s wings during a perching maneuver. This project focuses on the wing mechanization design and analysis as well as the structure/mechanism integration. The advantage of a perching type of landing is that it allows the vehicle to land with approximately zero vertical and horizontal velocity on a tree branch, power line, or ledge. The requirements to perform this maneuver were investigated, the structural design was developed, and the mechanization integration to achieve this motion was determined. A model was designed and manufactured to demonstrate the kinematic mechanism making this wing motion possible. Wind tunnel testing and analytical simulation were also completed to further develop the model.