scholarly journals Towards Bio-Inspiration, Development, and Manufacturing of a Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle

Drones ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
P. Lane ◽  
G. Throneberry ◽  
I. Fernandez ◽  
M. Hassanalian ◽  
R. Vasconcellos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aerodynamic Force ◽  
Force Production ◽  
Flight Test ◽  
Flapping Wing ◽  
Micro Air Vehicle ◽  
Air Vehicle ◽  
Successful Design ◽  
The Stability ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Throughout the last decade, there has been an increased demand for intricate flapping-wing drones with different capabilities than larger drones. The design of flapping-wing drones is focused on endurance and stability, as these are two of the main challenges of these systems. Researchers have recently been turning towards bioinspiration as a way to enhance aerodynamic performance. In this work, the propulsion system of a flapping-wing micro air vehicle is investigated to identify the limitations and drawbacks of specific designs. Each system has a tandem wing configuration inspired by a dragonfly, with wing shapes inspired by a bumblebee. For the design of this flapping-wing, a sizing process is carried out. A number of actuation mechanisms are considered, and two different mechanisms are designed and integrated into a flapping-wing system and compared to one another. The second system is tested using a thrust stand to investigate the impact of wing configurations on aerodynamic force production and the trend of force production from varying flapping frequency. Results present the optimal wing configuration of those tested and that an angle of attack of two degrees yields the greatest force production. A tethered flight test is conducted to examine the stability and aerodynamic capabilities of the drone, and challenges of flapping-wing systems and solutions that can lead to successful flight are presented. Key challenges to the successful design of these systems are weight management, force production, and stability and control.

scholarly journals Characterizing and modeling the enhancement of lift and payload capacity resulting from thrust augmentation in a propeller-assisted flapping wing air vehicle

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex E Holness ◽  
Hugh A Bruck ◽  
Satyandra K Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Mode ◽  
Aerodynamic Force ◽  
Force Production ◽  
Flight Time ◽  
Flapping Wing ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Biologically Inspired ◽  
Air Vehicle ◽  
Payload Capacity ◽  
Aerodynamic Lift

Biologically-inspired flapping wing flight is attractive at low Reynolds numbers and at high angles of attack, where fixed wing flight performance declines precipitously. While the merits of flapping propulsion have been intensely investigated, enhancing flapping propulsion has proven challenging because of hardware constraints and the complexity of the design space. For example, increasing the size of wings generates aerodynamic forces that exceed the limits of actuators used to drive the wings, reducing flapping amplitude at higher frequencies and causing thrust to taper off. Therefore, augmentation of aerodynamic force production from alternative propulsion modes can potentially enhance biologically-inspired flight. In this paper, we explore the use of auxiliary propellers on Robo Raven, an existing flapping wing air vehicle (FWAV), to augment thrust without altering wing design or flapping mechanics. Designing such a platform poses two major challenges. First, potential for negative interaction between the flapping and propeller airflow reducing thrust generation. Second, adding propellers to an existing platform increases platform weight and requires additional power from heavier energy sources for comparable flight time. In this paper, three major findings are reported addressing these challenges. First, locating the propellers behind the flapping wings (i.e. in the wake) exhibits minimal coupling without positional sensitivity for the propeller placement at or below the platform centerline. Second, the additional thrust generated by the platform does increase aerodynamic lift. Third, the increase in aerodynamic lift offsets the higher weight of the platform, significantly improving payload capacity. The effect of varying operational payload and flight time for different mixed mode operating conditions was predicted, and the trade-off between the operational payload and operating conditions for mixed mode propulsion was characterized. Flight tests revealed the improved agility of the platform when used with static placement of the wings for various aerobatic maneuvers, such as gliding, diving, or loops.

Sizing process, aerodynamic analysis, and experimental assessment of a biplane flapping wing nano air vehicle

2019 ◽  
Vol 233 (15) ◽  
pp. 5618-5636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Ghommem ◽  
Mostafa Hassanalian ◽  
Majed Al-Marzooqi ◽  
Glen Throneberry ◽  
Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Keyword(s):  
Flight Test ◽  
Flapping Wing ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Magnetic Coils ◽  
Strip Theory ◽  
Air Vehicle ◽  
Applied Design ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Design And Manufacture ◽  
Nano Air Vehicle

The design, manufacturing, experimentation, performance analysis, and flight test for a biplane flapping wing nano air vehicle, capable of both forward and hovering flight are presented. To design this nano air vehicle, a comprehensive sizing method based on theoretical and statistical analyses is proposed and experimentally verified. Then, aerodynamic analyses based on quasi-steady and strip theory methods are conducted to select the optimum values for the kinematics. To evaluate the proposed conceptual design obtained from the sizing methodology and aerodynamic analyses, an experimental setup deploying strain gauges mounted on a thin aluminum plate is implemented. This setup is also deployed to identify the wing configuration resulting in the highest thrust generation and lowest power consumption. The experimental results are found in a good agreement with the aerodynamic simulations. To ensure the stability of the air vehicle and a smooth transition between the different flying modes, magnetic coils are mounted on the tail to actuate the elevator and rudder. A flight test was successfully performed indoor to demonstrate the flying capabilities of the air vehicle and the camera showed a clear visual inspection of the area. It showed stable behavior especially during the transition from forward flight to hovering and superior flight endurance in comparison to similar air vehicles reported in the literature. The proposed and applied design methodologies along with the manufacturing process are expected to provide useful guidelines to design and manufacture different types of flapping wings to support various applications.

scholarly journals Active disturbance rejection attitude control for the dove flapping wing micro air vehicle in intermittent flapping and gliding flight

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 175682932094308
Author(s):  
Shaoran Liang ◽  
Bifeng Song ◽  
Jianlin Xuan ◽  
Yubin Li
Keyword(s):  
Attitude Control ◽  
Disturbance Rejection ◽  
Flapping Wing ◽  
Micro Air Vehicle ◽  
Tracking Differentiator ◽  
Active Disturbance Rejection ◽  
Disturbance Rejection Control ◽  
Gliding Flight ◽  
Air Vehicle ◽  
The Stability

This paper proposes an attitude control scheme for the Dove flapping wing micro air vehicle in intermittent flapping and gliding flight. The Dove flapping wing micro air vehicle adopts intermittent flapping and gliding flight to make the wing movements more natural; this strategy also has the potential to reduce energy consumption. To implement this specific flight mode, this paper proposes a closed-loop active disturbance rejection control strategy to stabilize the attitude during the processes of flapping flight, transition and gliding flight. The active disturbance rejection control controller is composed of three parts: a tracking differentiator, a linear extended state observer and a nonlinear state error feedback controller. The tracking differentiator estimates the given target signal and the differential signal in real time. The extended state observer estimates the system states and system nonlinearity. Moreover, the bandwidth parameterization method is applied to determine the observer gains. The stability of the closed-loop system is verified using Lyapunov’s theorem. Several outdoor flight experiments have been conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method, and the results show that the proposed method can guarantee the stability of intermittent flapping and gliding flight.

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

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.

Design and Control of Hoverable Bionic Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shengjie Xiao ◽  
Huichao Deng ◽  
Kai Hu ◽  
Shutong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Flapping Wing ◽  
Micro Air Vehicle ◽  
Air Vehicle ◽  
And Control
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