Progress of Chinese“Dove”and Future Studies on Flight Mechanism of Birds and Application System

This paper introduces the Chinese"Dove"——A practical application system of bird-mimetic air vehicles developed for more than a decade by the Institute of Flight Vehicle Innovation of Northwest Polytechnic University(NWPU)in China.Firstly,the main components,flight capability and flight verification of the Chinese"Dove"are presented.Then,the methods for the aerodynamic simulation and wind tunnel experiments are put forward.Secondly,the design of high-lift and high-thrust flexible flapping wings,a series of flapping mechanisms,gust-resistance layout and micro flight control/navigation system are presented.Some future studies on the application system of bionic micro air vehicles are given,including observation of natural flight creatures,aerodynamics in flight,mechanical and new material driving systems,structural mechanics,flight mechanics,and the information perception and intelligent decision-making control,which are related to research of flight bioinformatic perception and brain science.Finally,some application examples of complex flapping movements,active/passive deformation of bird wings,new low-energy motion-driven system,bionic intelligent decision-making and control/navigation are discussed.

Digital Simulation of Full Scale Static Test of Aircraft

Full scale aircraft static test is a very important process of aircraft design, it is costly and time consuming. The testing accuracy and validity mainly depend on the rationality of the test scheme design. When the aircraft is being tested, the specimen＇s safety mainly depends on monitoring and understanding the testing data by way of evaluating the coherence with the digital simulation data synchyononsly. The test digital simulation can aid realizing above requirements and improving the test efficiency significantly during test scheme design stage or testing stage respectively. The key technologies and the solving methods of test digital simulation are presented and the application example is given.

Review on ultra-lightweight flapping-wing nano air vehicles:Artificial muscles,flight control mechanism,and biomimetic wings

Flying insects are capable of flapping their wings to provide the required power and control forces for flight.A coordinated organizational system including muscles,wings,and control architecture plays a significant role,which provides the sources of inspiration for designing flapping-wing vehicles.In recent years,due to the development of micro-and meso-scale manufacturing technologies,advances in components technologies have directly led to a progress of smaller Flapping-Wing Nano Air Vehicles(FWNAVs)around gram and sub-gram scales,and these air vehicles have gradually acquired insect-like locomotive strategies and capabilities.This paper will present a selective review of components technologies for ultra-lightweight flapping-wing nano air vehicles under 3 g,which covers the novel propulsion methods such as artificial muscles,flight control mechanisms,and the design paradigms of the insect-inspired wings,with a special focus on the development of the driving technologies based on artificial muscles and the progress of the biomimetic wings.The challenges involved in constructing such small flapping-wing air vehicles and recommendations for several possible future directions in terms of component technology enhancements and overall vehicle performance are also discussed in this paper.This review will provide the essential guidelines and the insights for designing a flapping-wing nano air vehicle with higher performance.

Solution set on the natural satellite formation orbits under first-order earth's non-spherical perturbation

Using the reference orbital element approach, the precise governing equations for the relative motion of formation flight are formulated. A number of ideal formations with respect to an elliptic orbit can be designed based on the relative motion analysis from the equations. The features of the oscillating reference orbital elements are studied by using the perturbation theory. The changes in the relative orbit under perturbation are divided into three categories, termed scale enlargement, drift and distortion respectively. By properly choosing the initial mean orbital elements for the leader and follower satellites, the deviations from originally regular formation orbit caused by the perturbation can be suppressed. Thereby the natural formation is set up. It behaves either like non-disturbed or need little control to maintain. The presented reference orbital element approach highlights the kinematics properties of the relative motion and is convenient to incorporate the results of perturbation analysis on orbital elements. This method of formation design has advantages over other methods in seeking natural formation and in initializing formation.

Influence of non-equilibrium reactions on the optimization of aerothrust aeroassisted maneuver with orbital change

The spaceplane is perspective vehicle due to wide maneuverability in comparison with a space capsule. Its maneuverability is expressed by the larger flight range and also by a possibility to rotate orbital inclination in the atmosphere by the aerodynamic and thrust forces. Orbital plane atmospheric rotation maneuvers can significantly reduce fuel costs compared to rocket-dynamic non-coplanar maneuver. However, this maneuver occurs at Mach numbers about 25, and such velocities lead to non-equilibrium chemical reactions in the shock wave. Such reactions change a physicochemical air property, and it affects aerodynamic coefficients. This paper investigates the influence of non-equilibrium reactions on the aerothrust aeroassisted maneuver with orbital change.The approach is to solve an optimization problem using the differential evolution algorithm with a temperature limitation. The spaceplane aerodynamic coefficients are determined by the numerical solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The aerodynamic calculations are conducted for the cases of perfect and non-equilibrium gases. A comparison of optimal trajectories,control laws, and fuel costs is made between models of perfect and non-equilibrium gases. The effect of a chemically reacting gas on the finite parameters is also evaluated using control laws obtained for a perfect gas.