Development and Flight Testing of Flapping-Wing Propelled Micro Air Vehicles

Platzer, Max F.; Papadopoulos, Jason; Jones, Kevin D.; Bradshaw, C.J.

doi:10.2514/6.2003-6549

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The design approach of Frank Kieser can be regarded as a biomorphic design. Typical examples of the biomorphic design are DelFly Micro [11] and Platzer's biplane FMAV [12]. DelFly Micro is similar to the X-type wing canard flapper of Frank Kiser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and Fabrication of Unconventional Flapping Wing Air Vehicles

Jung

Choi

Wang

et al. 2015

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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ßRecently, numerous research groups are actively studying the design of the flapping wing air vehicles (FWAV). The FWAV was inspired by flying birds and insects. The lift and thrust forces are simultaneously generated from the flapping motion. The FWAV design is classified into either a biomimetic design or a biomorphic design. First, the bird-mimicking FWAV, which has one pair of wings, is fabricated as a biomimetic design. The driving mechanism is simplified to implement the flapping motion in the vertical plane. Second, unconventional FWAVs, which are the X-type wing FWAV, two pairs of X-type wings FWAV and three pairs of X-type wings FWAV, are developed to improve the performance of the bird-mimicking FWAV. The X-type wing FWAV is developed as a biomorphic design. The two pairs of X-type wings FWAV and three pairs of X-type wings FWAV are developed as a combination of the biomimetic and biomorphic designs. Various flight tests are carried out and the performances of FWAVs are analyzed by measuring the thrust-to-weight ratio and the lift-to-weight ratio. The results indicate that the unconventional FWAV with an appropriate combination of biomimetic and biomorphic designs has superior performance to the bird-mimicking FWAVs with a biomimetic design.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and Fabrication of Unconventional Flapping Wing Air Vehicles

Jung

Choi

Wang

et al. 2015

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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“…Besides FMAV with a single pair of wings [16,17], there are other variants as well [18,19]. One of these is the Delfly [20], a family of bio-inspired ornithopter MAV developed at the Delft University of Technology, which has two pairs of wings in a X-wing type flapping configuration (figure 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical simulation of X-wing type biplane flapping wings in 3D using the immersed boundary method

Tay¹,

Oudheusden²,

Bijl³

2014

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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The numerical simulation of an insect-sized 'X-wing' type biplane flapping wing configuration is performed in 3D using an immersed boundary method solver at Reynolds numbers equal to 1000 (1 k) and 5 k, based on the wing's root chord length. This X-wing type flapping configuration draws its inspiration from Delfly, a bio-inspired ornithopter MAV which has two pairs of wings flapping in anti-phase in a biplane configuration. The objective of the present investigation is to assess the aerodynamic performance when the original Delfly flapping wing micro-aerial vehicle (FMAV) is reduced to the size of an insect. Results show that the X-wing configuration gives more than twice the average thrust compared with only flapping the upper pair of wings of the X-wing. However, the X-wing's average thrust is only 40% that of the upper wing flapping at twice the stroke angle. Despite this, the increased stability which results from the smaller lift and moment variation of the X-wing configuration makes it more suited for sharp image capture and recognition. These advantages make the X-wing configuration an attractive alternative design for insect-sized FMAVS compared to the single wing configuration. In the Reynolds number comparison, the vorticity iso-surface plot at a Reynolds number of 5 k revealed smaller, finer vortical structures compared to the simulation at 1 k, due to vortices' breakup. In comparison, the force output difference is much smaller between Re = 1 k and 5 k. Increasing the body inclination angle generates a uniform leading edge vortex instead of a conical one along the wingspan, giving higher lift. Understanding the force variation as the body inclination angle increases will allow FMAV designers to optimize the thrust and lift ratio for higher efficiency under different operational requirements. Lastly, increasing the spanwise flexibility of the wings increases the thrust slightly but decreases the efficiency. The thrust result is similar to one of the spanwise studies, but the efficiency result contradicts it, indicating that other flapping parameters are involved as well. Results from this study provide a deeper understanding of the underlying aerodynamics of the X-wing type, which will help to improve the performance of insect-sized FMAVs using this unique configuration.

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Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Plunging Airfoil Under Gusty Environment

Lian

Shyy

2007

45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit

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Development and Flight Testing of Flapping-Wing Propelled Micro Air Vehicles

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Analysis and Fabrication of Unconventional Flapping Wing Air Vehicles

Analysis and Fabrication of Unconventional Flapping Wing Air Vehicles

Numerical simulation of X-wing type biplane flapping wings in 3D using the immersed boundary method

Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Plunging Airfoil Under Gusty Environment

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