The flapping mechanism concept presented in this paper mimics the essential mechanics of the insect thorax and not merely the wing kinematics of a particular insect. The wing motion comes naturally from the dynamics of the system, which can be optimized for peak aerodynamic performance. To achieve this, kinematic parameters were identified that qualitatively describe the wing motion. Aerodynamic tests on a robotic flapper revealed the optimal values of these kinematic parameters in order to achieve maximum cycle-averaged lift and the lift-to-drag ratio. Nondimensional analysis of the thorax model showed that the flapping dynamics can be decoupled from the rotational dynamics. Perturbation analysis was used to tune the flapping dynamics at resonance, while numerical optimization was used to find the optimal parameters of the rotational dynamics equation. The key findings of this analysis are the roles played by pterostigma and rotational stiffness in improving aerodynamic performance. A prototype mechanism was designed and fabricated to validate the theoretical findings. Experimental evaluation confirmed the aerodynamic importance of rotational stiffness and pterostigma in insect wings. Additionally, the thorax-based mechanism is simple and lightweight, and it shows significant lift generation capability, which can be enhanced further by the use of more powerful microbrushless motors. Finally, the work presented in this paper also contributes to the emerging area of biologically inspired designs and provides motivation for further biological research in order to understand the importance of pterostigma and rotational stiffness in insect flight.


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    Titel :

    Study of biologically inspired flapping mechanism for micro air vehicles


    Weitere Titelangaben:

    Studie über biologisch inspirierte Schlagmechanismen für Mikro-Luftfahrzeuge


    Beteiligte:

    Erschienen in:

    AIAA Journal ; 49 , 7 ; 1354-1365


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2011


    Format / Umfang :

    12 Seiten, 17 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 26 Quellen



    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Print


    Sprache :

    Englisch