Development of a Flying Robot With a Pantograph-Based Variable Wing Mechanism

Hara, Naohiro; Tanaka, Kazuo; Ohtake, Hiroshi; Wang, H.O.

doi:10.1109/tro.2008.2008736

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This not only revises our textbook understanding of avian functional morphology [5,6,19], but may critically inform fossil interpretation [29] and developmental studies [22,23]. Finally, the six-bar model offers the first quantitative information for avian-inspired morphing wing design [30][31][32][33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

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How pigeons couple three-dimensional elbow and wrist motion to morph their wings

Stowers

Matloff

Lentink³

2017

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Birds change the shape and area of their wings to an exceptional degree, surpassing insects, bats and aircraft in their ability to morph their wings for a variety of tasks. This morphing is governed by a musculoskeletal system, which couples elbow and wrist motion. Since the discovery of this effect in 1839, the planar 'drawing parallels' mechanism has been used to explain the coupling. Remarkably, this mechanism has never been corroborated from quantitative motion data. Therefore, we measured how the wing skeleton of a pigeon () moves during morphing. Despite earlier planar assumptions, we found that the skeletal motion paths are highly three-dimensional and do not lie in the anatomical plane, ruling out the 'drawing parallels' mechanism. Furthermore, micro-computed tomography scans in seven consecutive poses show how the two wrist bones contribute to morphing, particularly the sliding ulnare. From these data, we infer the joint types for all six bones that form the wing morphing mechanism and corroborate the most parsimonious mechanism based on least-squares error minimization. Remarkably, the algorithm shows that all optimal four-bar mechanisms either lock, are unable to track the highly three-dimensional bone motion paths, or require the radius and ulna to cross for accuracy, which is anatomically unrealistic. In contrast, the algorithm finds that a six-bar mechanism recreates the measured motion accurately with a parallel radius and ulna and a sliding ulnare. This revises our mechanistic understanding of how birds morph their wings, and offers quantitative inspiration for engineering morphing wings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…crossed four-bar model offer quantitative inspiration for engineering morphing wing design [30][31][32][33].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How pigeons couple three-dimensional elbow and wrist motion to morph their wings

Stowers

Matloff

Lentink³

2017

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…An additional advantage of the pantograph mechanism is that the wing is more compact and this allows the wings to be more slender and aerodynamically efficient. Some researchers have produced a bird-inspired pantograph mechanism for micro air vehicle design (Hara and Tanaka, 2007). Other researchers have produced a pantograph-type mechanism for hand rehabilitation robotics (Burton et al 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Energy Benefits of the Pantograph Wing Mechanism in Flapping Flight: Case Study of a Gull

Burgess

Lock

Wang

et al. 2015

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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Bird wings generally contain a 4-bar pantograph mechanism in the forearm that enables the wrist joint to be actuated from the elbow joint thus reducing the number of wing muscles and hence reducing the wing inertia and inertial drag. In this paper we develop a theoretical model of inertial power for flapping flight to estimate the advantage of the 4-bar pantograph mechanism by comparing the inertial power required for the case where wrist muscles are present in the forearm with the case where wrist muscles are not present in the forearm. It is difficult to predict how wrist muscles would look when there is no pantograph mechanism. Therefore a lower bound and upper bound case are defined. The lower bound case involves redistributing the elbow muscles with no increase in wing mass. The upper bound case involves replicating the biceps-triceps muscles near the wrist joint. At minimum power speed the model estimates that the 4-bar pantograph mechanism reduces the inertial power for the gull from between 6.1%-12.3% and reduces the overall power by 0.6%-1.2%. When account is taken of the tight margins involved in the design of a flying vehicle, the energy savings produced by the pantograph mechanism are significant. A ring-billed gull was chosen for the case study and an adult specimen was obtained to gather morphometric data. Lessons for the design of flapping micro air vehicles are discussed. Nomenclature b Wing span (m) C L Lift coefficient C w Wing width (m) I Wing inertia ×10-6 (kgm 2) (with 4-bar mechanism) I' LB Wing inertia ×10-6 (kgm 2) (without 4-bar mechanism) LB I' UB Wing inertia ×10-6 (kgm 2) (without 4-bar mechanism) UB f Flapping frequency (Hz) L w Length wing (m) m b-t mass of biceps-triceps (kg) m w Wing mass ×10-3 (kg) m w-m mass of wrist muscles (kg) r b-t radius of biceps-triceps (m) r w-m radius of wrist muscle S Single wing area ×10-4 (m 2) ω max Maximum angular velocity (rad/s) ρ Air density (kg/m 3)

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“…Cyclocopter, Spincopter, Coandǎ, Parafoil, and Kite UAVs A cyclocopter (Fig. 13 (a)-(b)) [128], [129] is a UAV that flies by rotating a cyclogyro wing with several wings positioned around the edge of a cylindrical structure. Generally, the wings' angles of attack are adjusted collectively by a servo motor to generate required forces.…”

Section: E Single-rotor Coaxial and Ducted-fan Uavsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…13 (a)). Hara et al [129] developed a cyclocopter based on a pantograph structure, where diameters of the wings can be expanded or contracted (with reference to the rotational axis) for flight control (Fig. 13 (b)).…”

Section: E Single-rotor Coaxial and Ducted-fan Uavsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Developments in Aerial Robotics: A Survey and Prototypes Overview

Liew,

DeLatte,

Takeishi

et al. 2017

Preprint

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In recent years, research and development in aerial robotics (i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs) has been growing at an unprecedented speed, and there is a need to summarize the background, latest developments, and trends of UAV research. Along with a general overview on the definition, types, categories, and topics of UAV, this work describes a systematic way to identify 1,318 high-quality UAV papers from more than thirty thousand that have been appeared in the top journals and conferences. On top of that, we provide a bird's-eye view of UAV research since 2001 by summarizing various statistical information, such as the year, type, and topic distribution of the UAV papers. We make our survey list public and believe that the list can not only help researchers identify, study, and compare their work, but is also useful for understanding research trends in the field. From our survey results, we find there are many types of UAV, and to the best of our knowledge, no literature has attempted to summarize all types in one place. With our survey list, we explain the types within our survey and outline the recent progress of each. We believe this summary can enhance readers' understanding on the UAVs and inspire researchers to propose new methods and new applications.Index Terms-Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned aircraft system (UAS), micro aerial vehicle (MAV), aerial robotics, flying robots, drone, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL). I. INTRODUCTIONU NMANNED aerial vehicle (UAV) research and development has been growing rapidly over the past decade. In academia, there are more than 60 UAV papers in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in 2016 alone. In the commercial sector, the annual Aerospace Forecast Report [1] released by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that more than seven million UAVs will be purchased by 2020. Another recent report [2] released by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC)-the second largest professional services firm in the world-estimates the global market for applications of UAVs at over $127 billion in 2020.Despite rapid growth, there is no survey paper that summarizes the background, latest developments, and trends of the UAV research. And, because the number of UAV papers has grown rapidly in recent years, researchers often find it hard to

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Development of a Flying Robot With a Pantograph-Based Variable Wing Mechanism

Cited by 12 publications

References 18 publications

How pigeons couple three-dimensional elbow and wrist motion to morph their wings

How pigeons couple three-dimensional elbow and wrist motion to morph their wings

The Energy Benefits of the Pantograph Wing Mechanism in Flapping Flight: Case Study of a Gull

Recent Developments in Aerial Robotics: A Survey and Prototypes Overview

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