In recent decades, Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) have been a hot topic for their promising future. But the promotions of MAVs are hindered by short endurances. To solve this problem, inspirations brought from migratory butterflies who utilize ‘flapping-gliding’ skill during long-distance migration to improve flight efficiency. The butterfly’s gliding flights, which can be simplified considering ste...

The forewing and the hindwing of a dragonfly have different geometry that could be an evolutionary specialization for better aerodynamic performance via sophisticated wing pitch control. Under extent pitching by root musculature, fore- hindwings exhibit shape deformation characteristics as result passive deformation. We measured flow around flapping wings using time-resolved particle image velo...

Maneuverability of flapping wing fliers inevitably goes with inherent system instability. Inherent instability means that systems require a flight controller and these vehicles are prone to crashing. This work proposes design feature stabilize the descent aerial vehicle. The vehicle is based on KUlibrie, nano robot under development at KU Leuven. A computational study indicates upwardly elevate...

Flapping wing micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) hold great potential for matching the agility of flies, their source of inspiration. At small scales, however, it becomes difficult to balance design mechanical complexity and the weight/lift ratio. Considering control in the initial stages of vehicle design can help define system feasibility and the consequences of making design simplifications. Here,...

Flapping wings of galliform birds are routinely used to produce aerodynamic forces oriented toward the substrate to enhance hindlimb traction. Here, I document this behavior in natural and laboratory settings. Adult birds fully capable of aerial flight preferentially employ wing-assisted incline running (WAIR), rather than flying, to reach elevated refuges (such as cliffs, trees, and boulders)....

Energy saving strategies such as formation flight and near-ground flight are frequently exploited in nature. The energy reduction mechanisms of these approaches are conceptually simple; however, the unsteady wake vortex structures that result from flapping may provide additional benefits. Since these flight strategies offer increased energy savings over simple flight situations, they have recei...

This paper discusses a methodology of analyzing the flight dynamic stability of a flapping wing Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) in hover. The flexible flapping wings are modeled by a strain-based geometrically nonlinear beam formulation, coupled with an empirical aerodynamic formulation for load calculation on the wings surfaces. Wing flapping kinematics is described using a set of Euler angles. Nonlin...

The aim of the article is the kinematic and geometric design of a flapping wing UAV, in order to develop an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, capable of executing reconnaissance and video-surveillance missions. To define the characteristic dimensions of the vehicle a biological study was initially carried out, analyzing, for example, the weight-wingspan ratio for the correct kinematics of the flight. On...

This letter is focused on the benchmark evaluation and comparison of flapping fixed wing flight modes an hybrid platform developed for realization autonomous inspection operations outdoors. The combines high range endurance fixed-wing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), with higher maneuverability intrinsic safety in interaction humans during hand launch capture. A unified model derived both confi...

Flying insects perform active flight control with flapping wings by continuously adjusting their wing kinematics in stabilizing the body posture to stay aloft under complex natural environment. While Proportional Derivative (PD) / Integral (PID)-based algorithms have been applied examine specific single degree of freedom (DoF) and/or 3 DoF associated insect flights, a full 6 strategy remains ye...