Experimental Studies of Tail Shapes for Hummingbird-Like Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles

Nan, Yanghai; Chen, Leo; McGlinchey, Don; Li, Yun

doi:10.1109/access.2020.2981190

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…It should be noted that there is a possibility that the appropriate stiffness of the flexibilities could depend on both wing and body shapes. Previous studies have reported the importance of the wing shape and structure (Keennon et al, 2012;Nan et al, 2017) as well as the tail shape (Nan et al, 2020) to improve mechanical efficiency and aerodynamic lift force production. Therefore, it will be our future work to experimentally examine the effects of various wing shapes and flexibilities to generalize our results and improve FFM performance.…”

Section: Effect Of the Flexibility In The Flapping Mechanism On The Robustness Against The Disturbancementioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility Effects of a Flapping Mechanism Inspired by Insect Musculoskeletal System on Flight Performance

Koizumi

Nakata

2021

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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Flying animals such as insects display great flight performances with high stability and maneuverability even under unpredictable disturbances in natural and man-made environments. Unlike man-made mechanical systems like a drone, insects can achieve various flapping motions through their flexible musculoskeletal systems. However, it remains poorly understood whether flexibility affects flight performances or not. Here, we conducted an experimental study on the effects of the flexibility associated with the flapping mechanisms on aerodynamic performance with a flexible flapping mechanism (FFM) inspired by the flexible musculoskeletal system of insects. Based on wing kinematic and force measurements, we found an appropriate combination of the flexible components could improve the aerodynamic efficiency by increasing the wingbeat amplitude. Results of the wind tunnel experiments suggested that, through some passive adjustment of the wing kinematics in concert with the flexible mechanism, the disturbance-induced effects could be suppressed. Therefore, the flight stability under the disturbances is improved. While the FFM with the most rigid spring was least efficient in the static experiments, the model was most robust against the wind within the range of the study. Our results, particularly regarding the trade-off between the efficiency and the robustness, point out the importance of the passive response of the flapping mechanisms, which may provide a functional biomimetic design for the flapping micro air vehicles (MAVs) capable of achieving high efficiency and stability.

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Section: Effect Of the Flexibility In The Flapping Mechanism On The Robustness Against The Disturbancementioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility Effects of a Flapping Mechanism Inspired by Insect Musculoskeletal System on Flight Performance

Koizumi

Nakata

2021

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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“…Considering the limited onboard power supply, the prototype demands high propulsion efficiency to generate sufficient thrust while consuming less power. To address that, the trapezoidal airfoil in [32] was adopted to improve the aerodynamic performance with a wing length of 78 mm and a mean chord length of ̅ 21 mm. The wings can be driven to flap at a natural frequency with the proper gains of the motor controllers, so that the aerodynamic lift can be tested.…”

Section: Wing Design and Manufacturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As shown in Figure 4, the mean lift of the wing was measured by the F/T sensor (Nano-17, ATI Industrial Automation, North Carolina, USA), indicating that the flapping wing generated a maximum thrust of 11 gf while flapping at Considering the limited onboard power supply, the prototype demands high propulsion efficiency to generate sufficient thrust while consuming less power. To address that, the trapezoidal airfoil in [32] was adopted to improve the aerodynamic performance with a wing length of R w = 78 mm and a mean chord length of c = 21 mm. The wings can be driven to flap at a natural frequency with the proper gains of the motor controllers, so that the aerodynamic lift can be tested.…”

Section: Wing Design and Manufacturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

HiFly-Dragon: A Dragonfly Inspired Flapping Flying Robot with Modified, Resonant, Direct-Driven Flapping Mechanisms

Ma,

Gong,

Tian

et al. 2024

Drones

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This paper describes a dragonfly-inspired Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FW-MAV), named HiFly-Dragon. Dragonflies exhibit exceptional flight performance in nature, surpassing most of the other insects, and benefit from their abilities to independently move each of their four wings, including adjusting the flapping amplitude and the flapping amplitude offset. However, designing and fabricating a flapping robot with multi-degree-of-freedom (multi-DOF) flapping driving mechanisms under stringent size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints poses a significant challenge. In this work, we propose a compact microrobot dragonfly with four tandem independently controllable wings, which is directly driven by four modified resonant flapping mechanisms integrated on the Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) of the avionics. The proposed resonant flapping mechanism was tested to be able to enduringly generate 10 gf lift at a frequency of 28 Hz and an amplitude of 180° for a single wing with an external DC power supply, demonstrating the effectiveness of the resonance and durability improvement. All of the mechanical parts were integrated on two PCBs, and the robot demonstrates a substantial weight reduction. The latest prototype has a wingspan of 180 mm, a total mass of 32.97 g, and a total lift of 34 gf. The prototype achieved lifting off on a balance beam, demonstrating that the directly driven robot dragonfly is capable of overcoming self-gravity with onboard batteries.

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“…Secondly, data from natural birds were considered. Yanghai and et al [34] obtained the values of different tail aspect ratios (AR h ) in certain species of birds. Table 3 shows the tail aspect ratios.…”

Section: First Processing Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Analysis of Bioinspired Tails in a Fixed-Wing Micro Air Vehicle

Barroso Barderas,

Bardera Mora,

Rodriguez-Sevillano

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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Bird tails play a key role in aerodynamics and flight stability. They produce extra lift for takeoff and landing maneuvers, enhance wing functions and maintain stability during flight (keeping the bird from yawing, rolling and pitching, or otherwise losing control). This paper investigates the use of bioinspired horizontal stabilizers for Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) involving a Zimmerman wing-body geometry. A selection of five tail shapes of the main types existing in nature is presented, and a parametric analysis is conducted looking into the influence of the most relevant tail geometric parameters to increase the longitudinal static stability of the vehicle. Based on the parametric study, a smaller subset of candidate tail designs are shortlisted to perform a detailed aerodynamic analysis. Then, steady RANS CFD simulations are conducted for a higher-fidelity study of these candidate tail designs to obtain an optimum of each tail type. The criterion for selection of the optimum tail configuration is the maximum aerodynamic efficiency, CLCD , as well as a high longitudinal static stability. The squared-fan tail provides the highest aerodynamic efficiency while maintaining a high longitudinal stability of the vehicle. In conclusion, this paper provides an innovative study of improving longitudinal stability and aerodynamics through the implementation of bioinspired horizontal stabilizers in vehicles with these characteristics.

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Experimental Studies of Tail Shapes for Hummingbird-Like Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles

Cited by 7 publications

References 39 publications

Flexibility Effects of a Flapping Mechanism Inspired by Insect Musculoskeletal System on Flight Performance

Flexibility Effects of a Flapping Mechanism Inspired by Insect Musculoskeletal System on Flight Performance

HiFly-Dragon: A Dragonfly Inspired Flapping Flying Robot with Modified, Resonant, Direct-Driven Flapping Mechanisms

Numerical Analysis of Bioinspired Tails in a Fixed-Wing Micro Air Vehicle

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