A micro air vehicle with a bird-mimetic up-down and twisting wing drive system was developed in this study. The Flap- ping-wing Micro Air Vehicle （FMAV）, with a 50 cm wingspan and a double-crank drive system, perfor...A micro air vehicle with a bird-mimetic up-down and twisting wing drive system was developed in this study. The Flap- ping-wing Micro Air Vehicle （FMAV）, with a 50 cm wingspan and a double-crank drive system, performed successful flights of up to 23 min. The performance and capabilities of the FMAV were enhanced by adapting a number of unique features, such as a bird-mimetic wing shape with a span-wise camber and an up-down and twisting wing drive mechanism with double-crank linkages, This lift-enhancing design by mimicking the flapping mechanism of a bird＇s wing enabled the 210 g FMAV to fly autonomously in an outdoor field under wind speeds of less than 5 m.s-1. Autonomous flight was enabled by installing a flight control computer with a micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope and accelerometers, along with a micro video camera and an ultralight wireless communication system inside the fuselage. A comprehensive wind tunnel test shows that the FMAV with a high-camber wing and double-crank mechanism generates more lift and less net thrust than the FMAV with a flat wing and single-crank mechanism, which confirms the improved performance of the developed FMAV, as well as the superior slow flying or hovering capabilities of the FMAV with a high-camber wing and double-crank wing drive system.展开更多
We investigated the effect of wing kinematics modulation, which was achieved by adjusting the location of trailing-edge constraint at the wing-root, i.e., by adjusting the wing-root offset, on the generation of aerody...We investigated the effect of wing kinematics modulation, which was achieved by adjusting the location of trailing-edge constraint at the wing-root, i.e., by adjusting the wing-root offset, on the generation of aerodynamic forces in a hovering in- sect-mimicking Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle （FW-MAV） by numerical and experimental studies. Three-dimensional wing kinematics measured using three synchronized high-speed cameras revealed a clear difference in the wing rotation angle of a wing section for different wing-root offsets. The extrapolated wing kinematics were in good agreement with the measured ones for various wing-root offsets. The Unsteady Blade Element Theory （UBET） was used to estimate the forces generated by the flapping wings and validated by comparison with results of measurements performed using a load cell. Although the thrust produced by a flapping wing with a wing-root offset of 0.20 c was about 4% less, its force-to-input-power ratio was about 30% and 10% higher than those with the offsets of 0.10 c and 0.15 c, respectively. This result could be explained by analyzing the effective Angle of Attack （AoA） and the force components computed by the UBET. Thus, a flapping wing with a wing-root offset of 0.20 c can be regarded as an optimal twist configuration for the development of the FW-MAV.展开更多
文摘A micro air vehicle with a bird-mimetic up-down and twisting wing drive system was developed in this study. The Flap- ping-wing Micro Air Vehicle （FMAV）, with a 50 cm wingspan and a double-crank drive system, performed successful flights of up to 23 min. The performance and capabilities of the FMAV were enhanced by adapting a number of unique features, such as a bird-mimetic wing shape with a span-wise camber and an up-down and twisting wing drive mechanism with double-crank linkages, This lift-enhancing design by mimicking the flapping mechanism of a bird＇s wing enabled the 210 g FMAV to fly autonomously in an outdoor field under wind speeds of less than 5 m.s-1. Autonomous flight was enabled by installing a flight control computer with a micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope and accelerometers, along with a micro video camera and an ultralight wireless communication system inside the fuselage. A comprehensive wind tunnel test shows that the FMAV with a high-camber wing and double-crank mechanism generates more lift and less net thrust than the FMAV with a flat wing and single-crank mechanism, which confirms the improved performance of the developed FMAV, as well as the superior slow flying or hovering capabilities of the FMAV with a high-camber wing and double-crank wing drive system.
文摘We investigated the effect of wing kinematics modulation, which was achieved by adjusting the location of trailing-edge constraint at the wing-root, i.e., by adjusting the wing-root offset, on the generation of aerodynamic forces in a hovering in- sect-mimicking Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle （FW-MAV） by numerical and experimental studies. Three-dimensional wing kinematics measured using three synchronized high-speed cameras revealed a clear difference in the wing rotation angle of a wing section for different wing-root offsets. The extrapolated wing kinematics were in good agreement with the measured ones for various wing-root offsets. The Unsteady Blade Element Theory （UBET） was used to estimate the forces generated by the flapping wings and validated by comparison with results of measurements performed using a load cell. Although the thrust produced by a flapping wing with a wing-root offset of 0.20 c was about 4% less, its force-to-input-power ratio was about 30% and 10% higher than those with the offsets of 0.10 c and 0.15 c, respectively. This result could be explained by analyzing the effective Angle of Attack （AoA） and the force components computed by the UBET. Thus, a flapping wing with a wing-root offset of 0.20 c can be regarded as an optimal twist configuration for the development of the FW-MAV.
