The design and microfabrication of a sub 100 mg insect‐scale flapping‐wing robot

Abstract

A piezo-actuated self-lifting insect inspired flapping-wing robot is presented. A novel method is presented in the work, which has taken into account the difficulties and the precision of assembly among micro components. Each component is properly designed and reasonably arranged to reduce the assembly difficulties of such insect-scale robot. Specifically, the design of the piezoelectric actuator has taken into account the electrical isolation and assembly issues. The transmission and the airframe are integrated into one component to avoid assembly difficulties. Fibre directions of wing veins are reasonably arranged to possess high strength and stiffness. As a result, this robot, which weighs 84 mg with a wingspan of 35 mm, can generate sufficient thrust to take off with a flapping amplitude approximately ±60°under the resonant wingbeat frequency of 100 Hz.

Aerodynamic mechanisms in bio‐inspired micro air vehicles: a review in the light of novel compound layouts

“…In addition, the rapid development of MEMS boosts the born of tiny bio‐mimicking flapping‐wing MAV that is close to the scale (or even at the same scale) of real insects [28, 29], as listed in Fig. 5.…”

“… Bio‐mimicking flapping‐wing MAVs close to insect scale (a) Robobee from Harvard University [28], (b) the Piezoelectric‐actuated MAV from Shanghai Jiao Tong University [29], (c) RoboFly from University of Washington [30]…”

A Sub-100 mg Electromagnetically Driven Insect-inspired Flapping-wing Micro Robot Capable of Liftoff and Control Torques Modulation

“…However, limited by the size of the motor and the complex transmission, these FMAVs weigh around 20 g with the size close to the human palm, which is far more than real insects. To be more similar to insects, some researchers have been focusing on the research of the insect-scale tailless FMAVs and several studies have successfully demonstrated liftoff [8][9][10][11][12] . Unlike the rotary displacement output of the motor, these insect-scale FMAVs use reciprocating actuators to mimic the contraction of insect muscles, which can realize the flapping of the wings through a simpler transmission mechanism [8,[10][11][12] or even without transmission [9] .…”

Nonlinear Vibration of a Micro Piezoelectric Precision Drive System

“…Fang et al [14] proposed a precision position stage with a piezoelectric actuator. In addition, Zou et al [15] developed an insect-scale flapping-wing robot with a wingspan of 35 mm. The robot had piezoelectric actuators.…”