Structural Design and Analysis of Small Flapping Wing Aircraft Based on the Crank Slider Mechanism

In this project,the miniaturization of the aircraft was realized under the premise of strong maneuverability,high concealability,and driving a certain load,and the flight mode and structural characteristics of birds were imitated.A small bionic flapping wing aircraft was built.The flapping of the wing was realized by the crank slider mechanism,and the sizes of each part were calculated according to the bionics formula.The wingspan was 360.37 mm,the body width was 22 mm,the body length was 300 mm,the wing area was 0.05 m^(2),the flapping amplitude was 71°.ADAMS software was used to simulate the dynamics of the designed aircraft,and the variation of flapping amplitude and angular velocity during the movement of the aircraft was obtained,which verified the feasibility of the mechanism.The prototype aircraft was made for flight test,and the designed bionic flapping wing aircraft achieved the expected effect.It provides a theoretical basis and data support for the design and manufacture of small flapping wing aircraft.

Kinematic and Aerodynamic Modelling of Bi- and Quad-Wing Flapping Wing Micro-Air-Vehicle

A generic approach to model the kinematics and aerodynamics of flapping wing ornithopter has been followed, to model and analyze a flapping bi- and quad-wing ornithopter and to mimic flapping wing biosystems to produce lift and thrust for hovering and forward flight. Considerations are given to the motion of a rigid and thin bi-wing and quad-wing ornithopter in flapping and pitching motion with phase lag. Basic Unsteady Aerodynamic Approach incorporating salient features of viscous effect and leading-edge suction are utilized. Parametric study is carried out to reveal the aerodynamic characteristics of flapping bi- and quad-wing ornithopter flight characteristics and for comparative analysis with various selected simple models in the literature, in an effort to develop a flapping bi- and quad-wing ornithopter models. In spite of their simplicity, results obtained for both models are able to reveal the mechanism of lift and thrust, and compare well with other work.

Effects of aspect ratio on flapping wing aerodynamics in animal flight

Morphology as well as kinematics is a critical determinant of performance in flapping flight.To understand the effects of the structural traits on aerodynamics of bioflyers,three rectangular wings with aspect ratios（AR）of1,2,and 4 performing hovering-like sinusoidal kinematics at wingtip based Reynolds number of 5 300 are experimentally investigated.Flow structures on sectional cuts along the wing span are compared.Stronger K-H instability is found on the leading edge vortex of wings with higher aspect ratios.Vortex bursting only appears on the outer spanwise locations of high-aspect-ratio wings.The vortex bursting on high-aspect-ratio wings is perhaps one of the reasons why bio-flyers normally have low-aspect-ratio wings.Quantitative analysis exhibits larger dimensionless circulation of the leading edge vortex（LEV）over higher aspect ratio wings except when vortex bursting happens.The average dimensionless circulation of AR1 and AR2 along the span almost equals the dimensionless circulation at the 50%span.The flow structure and the circulation analysis show that the sinusoidal kinematics suppresses breakdown of the LEV compared with simplified flapping kinematics used in similar studies.The Reynolds number effect results on AR4 show that in the current Re range,the overall flow structure is not sensitive to Reynolds number.

Aerodynamic Analysis and Simulation of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicles on Hovering

In order to design and verify control algorithms for flapping wing aerial vehicles(FWAVs),calculation models of the translational force,rotational force and virtual mass force were established with the basis on the modified quasi-steady aerodynamic theory and high lift mechanisms of insect flight.The simulation results show that the rotational force and virtual mass force can be ignored in the hovering FWAVs with simple harmonic motions in a cycle.The effects of the wing deformation on aerodynamic forces were investigated by regarding the maximum rotational angle of wingtip as a reference variable.The simulation results also show that the average lift coefficient increases and drag coefficient decreases with the increase of the maximum rotational angle of wingtip in the range of 0-90°.

The influence of the wake of a flapping wing on the production of aerodynamic forces

The effect of the wake of previous strokes on the aerodynamic forces of a flapping model insect wing is studied using the method of computational fluid dynamics. The wake effect is isolated by comparing the forces and flows of the starting stroke （when the wake has not developed） with those of a later stroke （when the wake has developed）. The following has been shown. （1） The wake effect may increase or decrease the lift and drag at the beginning of a half-stroke （downstroke or upstroke）, depending on the wing kinematics at stroke reversal. The reason for this is that at the beginning of the half-stroke, the wing “impinges” on the spanwise vorticity generated by the wing during stroke reversal and the distribution of the vorticity is sensitive to the wing kinematics at stroke reversal. （2） The wake effect decreases the lift and increases the drag in the rest part of the half-stroke. This is because the wing moves in a downwash field induced by previous half-stroke＇s starting vortex, tip vortices and attached leading edge vortex （these vortices form a downwash producing vortex ring）. （3） The wake effect decreases the mean lift by 6%-18% （depending on wing kinematics at stroke reversal） and slightly increases the mean drag. Therefore, it is detrimental to the aerodynamic performance of the flapping wing.

Time-history performance optimization of flapping wing motion using a deep learning based prediction model

Flapping Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles(FWMAVs)have caused great concern in various fields because of their high efficiency and maneuverability.Flapping wing motion is a very important factor that affects the performance of the aircraft,and previous works have always focused on the time-averaged performance optimization.However,the time-history performance is equally important in the design of motion mechanism and flight control system.In this paper,a time-history performance optimization framework based on deep learning and multi-island genetic algorithm is presented,which is designed in order to obtain the optimal two-dimensional flapping wing motion.Firstly,the training dataset for deep learning neural network is constructed based on a validated computational fluid dynamics method.The aerodynamic surrogate model for flapping wing is obtained after the convergence of training.The surrogate model is tested and proved to be able to accurately and quickly predict the time-history curves of lift,thrust and moment.Secondly,the optimization framework is used to optimize the flapping wing motion in two specific cases,in which the optimized propulsive efficiencies have been improved by over 40%compared with the baselines.Thirdly,a dimensionless parameter C_(variation)is proposed to describe the variation of the time-history characteristics,and it is found that C_(variation)of lift varies significantly even under close time-averaged performances.Considering the importance of time-history performance in practical applications,the optimization that integrates the propulsion efficiency as well as C_(variation)is carried out.The final optimal flapping wing motion balances good time-averaged and time-history performance.

Resonance mechanism of flapping wing based on fluid structure interaction simulation

Certain insect species have been observed to exploit the resonance mechanism of their wings.In order to achieve resonance and optimize aerodynamic performance,the conventional approach is to set the flapping frequency of flexible wings based on the Traditional Structural Modal(TSM)analysis.However,there exists controversy among researchers regarding the relationship between frequency and aerodynamic performance.Recognizing that the structural response of wings can be influenced by the surrounding air vibrations,an analysis known as Acoustic Structure Interaction Modal(ASIM)is introduced to calculate the resonant frequency.In this study,Fluid Structure Interaction(FSI)simulations are employed to investigate the aerodynamic performance of flapping wings at modal frequencies derived from both TSM and ASIM analyses.The performance is evaluated for various mass ratios and frequency ratios,and the findings indicate that the deformation and changes in vortex structure exhibit similarities at mass ratios that yield the highest aerodynamic performance.Notably,the flapping frequency associated with the maximum time-averaged vertical force coefficient at each mass ratio closely aligns with the ASIM frequency,as does the frequency corresponding to maximum efficiency.Thus,the ASIM analysis can provide an effective means for predicting the optimal flapping frequency for flexible wings.Furthermore,it enables the prediction that flexible wings with varying mass ratios will exhibit similar deformation and vortex structure changes.This paper offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing debate concerning the resonance mechanism of Flexible Flapping Wings(FFWs)and proposes an effective methodology for predicting their aerodynamic performance.

A review of bird-like flapping wing with high aspect ratio

Bird-like flapping-wing vehicles with a high aspect ratio have the potential to fulfill missions given to micro air vehicles,such as high-altitude reconnaissance,surveillance,rescue,and bird group guidance,due to their good loading and long endurance capacities.Biologists and aeronautical researchers have explored the mystery of avian flight and made efforts to reproduce flapping flight in bioinspired aircraft for decades.However,the cognitive depth from theory to practice is still very limited.The mechanism of generating sufficient lift and thrust during avian flight is still not fully understood.Moving wings with unique biological structures such as feathers make modeling,simulation,experimentation,and analysis much more difficult.This paper reviews the research progress on bird-like flapping wings from flight mechanisms to modeling.Commonly used numerical computing methods are briefly compared.The aeroelastic problems are also highlighted.The results of the investigation show that a leading-edge vortex can be found during avian flight.Its induction and maintenance may have a close relationship with wing configuration,kinematics and deformation.The present models of flapping wings are mainly two-dimensional airfoils or three-dimensional single root-jointed geometric plates,which still exhibit large differences from real bird wings.Aeroelasticity is encouraged to consider the nonignorable effect on aerodynamic performance due to large-scale nonlinear deformation.Introducing appropriate flexibility can improve the peak values and efficiencies of lift and thrust,but the detailed conclusions always have strong background dependence.

NUMERICAL STUDIES ON THE PROPULSION AND WAKE STRUCTURES OF FINITE-SPAN FLAPPING WINGS WITH DIFFERENT ASPECT RATIOS

An immersed-boundary method is used to investigate the flapping wings with different aspect ratios ranging from 1 to 5.The numerical results on wake structures and the performance of the propulsion are given.Unlike the case of the two-dimensional flapping foil,the wing-tip vortices appear for the flow past a three-dimensional flapping wing,which makes the wake vortex structures much different.The results show that the leading edge vortex merges into the trailing edge vortex,connects with the wing tip vortices and then sheds from the wing.A vortex ring forms in the wake,and exhibits different patterns for different foil aspect ratios.Analysis of hydrodynamic performances shows that both thrust coefficient and efficiency of the flapping wing increase with increasing aspect ratio.

Flapping wing micro-aerial-vehicle： Kinematics, membranes, and flapping mechanisms of ornithopter and insect flight

The application of biomimetics in the development of unmanned-aerial-vehicles （UAV） has advanced to an exceptionally small scale of nano-aerial-vehicles （NAV）, which has surpassed its immediate predecessor of micro-aerial-vehicles （MAV）, leaving a vast range of development possi- bilities that MAVs have to offer. Because of the prompt advancement into the NAV research devel- opment, the true potential and challenges presented by MAV development were never solved, understood, and truly uncovered, especially under the influence of transition and low Reynolds number flow characteristics. This paper reviews a part of previous MAV research developments which are deemed important of notification; kinematics, membranes, and flapping mechanisms ranges from small birds to big insects, which resides within the transition and low Reynolds number regimes. This paper also reviews the possibility of applying a piezoelectric transmission used to pro- duce NAV flapping wing motion and mounted on a MAV, replacing the conventional motorized flapping wing transmission. Findings suggest that limited work has been done for MAVs matching these criteria. The preferred research approach has seen bias towards numerical analysis as compared to experimental analysis.

Design and experimental study of a new flapping wing rotor micro aerial vehicle

A three-wing Flapping Wing Rotor Micro Aerial Vehicle(FWR-MAV)which can perform controlled flight is introduced and an experimental study on this vehicle is presented.A mechanically driven flapping rotary mechanism is designed to drive the three flapping wings and generate lift,and control mechanisms are designed to control the pose of the FWR-MAV.A flight control board for attitude control with robust onboard attitude estimation and a control algorithm is also developed to perform stable hovering flight and forward flight.A series of flight tests was conducted,with hovering flight and forward flight tests performed to optimize the control parameters and assess the performance of the FWR-MAV.The hovering flight test shows the ability of the FWR-MAV to counteract the moment generated by rotary motion and maintain the attitude of the FWR-MAV in space;the experiment of forward flight shows that the FWR-MAV can track the desired attitude.

More Detailed Disturbance Measurement and Active Disturbance Rejection Altitude Control for a Flapping Wing Robot Under Internal and External Disturbances

With the goal of designing a biologically inspired robot that can hold a stable hover under internal and external disturbances.We designed a tailless Flapping-wing Micro Aerial Vehicle(FMAV)with onboard 3D velocity perception.In this way,the wind disturbance caused by the relative motion of the FMAV can be quantified in real time based on the established altitudinal dynamics model.For the rest of the total disturbance,an active disturbance rejection controller is proposed to estimate and suppress those disturbances.In comparison with the traditional PID controller,this proposed approach has been validated.The results show that,in the hovering flight with the internal unmodeled dynamics,the root-mean-square of height controlled is only 2.53 cm.Even with the different weights of loads mounting on the FMAV,the ascending trajectory of flights remains impressively consistent.In the forward flight with the external disturbance,the root-mean-square error of height controlled is 2.78 cm.When the FMAV flies over a ladder introducing an abrupt external disturbance,the maximum overshoot is only half of that controlled by the PID controller.To our best knowledge,this is the first demonstration of FMAVs with the capability of sensing motion-generated wind disturbance onboard and handling the internal and external disturbances in hover flight.

A Review of Research on the Mechanical Design of Hoverable Flapping Wing Micro-Air Vehicles

Most insects and hummingbirds can generate lift during both upstroke and downstroke with a nearly horizontal flapping stroke plane,and perform precise hovering flight.Further,most birds can utilize tails and muscles in wings to actively control the flight performance,while insects control their flight with muscles based on wing root along with wing’s passive deformation.Based on the above flight principles of birds and insects,Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles(FWMAVs)are classified as either bird-inspired or insect-inspired FWMAVs.In this review,the research achievements on mechanisms of insect-inspired,hoverable FWMAVs over the last ten years(2011-2020)are provided.We also provide the definition,function,research status and development prospect of hoverable FWMAVs.Then discuss it from three aspects:bio-inspiration,motor-driving mechanisms and intelligent actuator-driving mechanisms.Following this,research groups involved in insect-inspired,hoverable FWMAV research and their major achievements are summarized and classified in tables.Problems,trends and challenges about the mechanism are compiled and presented.Finally,this paper presents conclusions about research on mechanical structure,and the future is discussed to enable further research interests.

A Bio-Inspired Flapping-Wing Robot With Cambered Wings and Its Application in Autonomous Airdrop

Flapping-wing flight, as the distinctive flight method retained by natural flying creatures, contains profound aerodynamic principles and brings great inspirations and encouragements to drone developers. Though some ingenious flapping-wing robots have been designed during the past two decades, development and application of autonomous flapping-wing robots are less successful and still require further research. Here, we report the development of a servo-driven bird-like flapping-wing robot named USTBird-I and its application in autonomous airdrop.Inspired by birds, a camber structure and a dihedral angle adjustment mechanism are introduced into the airfoil design and motion control of the wings, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics simulations and actual flight tests show that this bionic design can significantly improve the gliding performance of the robot, which is beneficial to the execution of the airdrop mission.Finally, a vision-based airdrop experiment has been successfully implemented on USTBird-I, which is the first demonstration of a bird-like flapping-wing robot conducting an outdoor airdrop mission.

Modeling and flapping vibration suppression of a novel tailless flapping wing micro air vehicle

This paper establishes and analyzes a high-fidelity nonlinear time-periodic dynamic model and the corresponding state observer for flapping vibration suppression of a novel tailless Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle(FWMAV),named NPU-Tinybird.Firstly,a complete modeling of NPU-Tinybird is determined,including the aerodynamic model based on the quasi-steady method,the kinematic and dynamic model about the mechanism of flapping and attitude control,combined with the single rigid body dynamic model.Based on this,a linearized longitudinal pitch dynamic cycle-averaged model is obtained and analyzed through the methods of neural network fitting and system identification,preparing for the design of flapping vibration suppression observer.Flapping vibration is an inherent property of the tailless FWMAV,which arises from the influence of time-periodic aerodynamic forces and moments.It can be captured by attitude and position sensors on the plane,which impairs the flight performance and efficiency of flight controller and actuators.To deal with this problem,a novel state observer for flapping vibration suppression is designed.A robust optimal controller based on the linear quadratic theory is also designed to stabilize the closed-loop system.Simulation results are given to verify the performance of the observer,including the closed loop responses combined with robust optimal controller,the comparison of different parameters of observer and the comparison with several classic methods,such as Kalman filter,H-infinity filter and low-pass filter,which prove that the novel observer owns a fairly good suppression effect on flapping vibration and benefits for the improvement of flight performance and control efficiency.

Human Memory/Learning Inspired Control Method for Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicles

The problem of flapping motion control of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) with flapping wings was studied in this paper.Based upon the knowledge of skeletal and muscular components of hummingbird, a dynamic model for flapping wing wasdeveloped.A control scheme inspired by human memory and learning concept was constructed for wing motion control ofMAVs.The salient feature of the proposed control lies in its capabilities to improve the control performance by learning fromexperience and observation on its current and past behaviors, without the need for system dynamic information.Furthermore,the overall control scheme has a fairly simple structure and demands little online computations, making it attractive for real-timeimplementation on MAVs.Both theoretical analysis and computer simulation confirms its effectiveness.

Effects of Chordwise Flexibility on the Aerodynamic Performance of a 3D Flapping Wing

Previous studies on chordwise flexibility of flexible wings generally relied on simplified two-dimensional （2D） models. In the present study, we constructed a simplified three-dimensional （3D） model and identified the role of the chordwise flexibility in full flapping motion. This paper includes two parts, the first part discusses the aerodynamic effects of the chordwise flexibility in a typical hovering-flight case; the second part introduces a parametric study of four key parameters. The primary findings are as follows. Flexibility generally degrades the lift performance of the flexible wings. However, in two special cases, i.e. when stroke amplitude is low or pitch rotation is delayed, the flexible wings outperform their rigid counterparts in lift generation. Moreover, flexibility reduces the power consumption of the flexible wings. A wing with small flexibility generally achieves a marginally higher flapping efficiency than its rigid counterpart. Furthermore, reducing stroke amplitude can effectively improve the lift performance of the very flexible wings. Aerodynamic performances of the flexible wings are not as sensitive as the rigid wing to phase difference and mid-stroke angle of attaek. The effects of Re are the same for the flexible and rigid wings.

Design and Aerodynamic Analysis of Dragonfly-like Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle

Dragonflies have naturally high flying ability and flight maneuverability,making them more adaptable to harsh ecological environments.In this paper,a flapping wing bionic air vehicle with three-degrees-of-freedom is designed and manufactured by simulating the flight mode of dragonfly.Firstly,the body structure of dragonfly was analyzed,and then the design scheme of flapping wing micro air vehicle was proposed based on the flight motion characteristics and musculoskeletal system of dragonfly.By optimizing the configuration and using Adams to do kinematic simulation,it is shown that the designed structure can make the wings move in an“8”shape trajectory,and the motion in three directions can maintain good consistency,with good dynamic performance.Based on CFD simulation method,we analyzed that the wing has the conditions to achieve flight with good aerodynamic performance at the incoming flow speed of 5 m s^(-1)and frequency of 4 Hz,and studied the effects of angle of attack and flutter frequency on the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft.Finally,the force measurement test of the aircraft prototype is carried out using a force balance and a small wind tunnel.The test results show that the prototype can provide the average lift of 3.62 N and the average thrust of 2.54 N,which are in good agreement with the simulation results.

Attitude control of flapping wing aircraft based on energy optimization and ESO

Aiming at the problem of insufficient endurance performance of flapping wing aircraft,a stable attitude control algorithm based on energy optimization and ESO(extended state observer)is designed,which effectively reduces the energy consumption in cruise phase.Firstly,the longitudinal dynamic model of flapping wing aircraft is established,and then the uncertain part of the system and various unknown external disturbances are taken as the total disturbance.ESO module is introduced to observe and track the total disturbance in real time.Therefore,the system is transformed into a series integral system through the total disturbance feedback,and then the energy optimal control law is designed on the base of the transformed system.The numerical simulation results show that,compared with the traditional PID control method,the designed energy optimal control method reduces the average energy consumption by 35.28%.

Numerical simulation of a two-dimensional flapping wing in advanced mode

A two-dimensional model is built to describe the translation and the rotation of the hovering flapping movement. The equations of motion are derived for insect＇s flapping movement, and the model is implemented by the computational fluid dynamics（CFD） software FLUENT and it？s user defined function（UDF）. It is shown that the lift coefficient changes slowly in the intermediate stage, there are two areas in which the lift coefficient changes dramatically, and the drag coefficient behaves quite differently when flapping up and down. The vortex distribution, the pressure distribution, and the velocity vector distribution in the advanced mode at different times follow quite various rules.