Physical and aerodynamic characteristics of the bird in flight may offer benefits over typical propeller or rotor driven miniature air vehicle (MAV) locomotion designs in certain types of scenarios. A number of research groups and companies have developed flapping wing vehicles that attempt to harness these benefits. The purpose of this paper is to report different types of flapping wing designs and compare their salient characteristics. For each category, advantages and disadvantages will be discussed. The discussion presented will be limited to miniature-sized flapping wing air vehicles, defined as 10–100 grams total weight. The discussion will be focused primarily on ornithopters which have performed at least one successful test flight. Additionally, this paper is intended to provide a representation of the field of current technology, rather than providing a comprehensive listing of all possible designs. This paper will familiarize a newcomer to the field with existing designs and their distinguishing features. By studying existing designs, future designers will be able to adopt features from other successful designs. This paper also summarizes the design challenges associated with the further advancement of the field and deploying flapping wing vehicles in practice.
Physical and aerodynamic characteristics of a bird in flight offer benefits over typical propeller or rotor driven miniature air vehicle (MAV) locomotion designs in certain applications. A number of research groups and companies have developed flapping wing vehicles that attempt to harness these benefits. The purpose of this paper is to report different types of flapping wing miniature air vehicle designs and compare their salient characteristics. This paper is focused on mechanical design aspects of mechanisms and wings. The discussion presented will be limited to miniature-sized flapping wing air vehicles, defined as 10 to 100 g total weight. The discussion will be focused primarily on designs which have performed at least one successful test flight. This paper provides representative designs in each category, rather than providing a comprehensive listing of all existing designs. This paper will familiarize a newcomer to the field with existing designs and their distinguishing features. By studying existing designs, future designers will be able to adopt features from other successful designs. This paper also summarizes the design challenges associated with the further advancement of the field and deploying flapping wing vehicles in practice.
Flapping wing motion produces positive lift in the down stroke and negative lift in the upstroke under zero forward velocity. Large birds frequently exhibit flight behavior where their wings are folded during the upstroke, thus lowering the air resistance as the wing is moved upwards. The result is reduced magnitude of negative lift produced during the upstroke, relative to the positive lift produced in the down stroke, where the wings are unfolded and the area is increased. We expect that by incorporating this style of upstroke wing folding into miniature air vehicle (MAV) platforms, beneficial flight properties would arise. Specifically, a portion of the wings' overall lift will be generated by upstroke folding and downstroke unfolding, even at zero forward velocity. Such a capability will reduce the reliance on aerodynamic lift produced due to the forward motion of the MAV. This in turn would reduce the minimum flight-sustaining forward velocity and thus enhance MAV maneuverability by allowing for a reduced turning radius.Incorporating wing folding into a miniature air vehicle platform presents a unique challenge due to strict weight constraints present at small sizes.Using actuators to accomplish folding actively is not feasible due to the added weight of the actuators and the need for an on-board control system to synchronize the folding with the wing flapping motion. Therefore, the folding motion must be accomplished passively, since this is currently the only viable option in miniature MAVs. We have developed a passive, spatially distributed, one-way folding mechanism. This mechanism has been incorporated into a flying MAV testbed, and has successfully shown that the flapping wing MAV with folding wings is capable of flying at reduced forward velocity, while maintaining the payload carrying capacity.
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