This paper describes the research into the flight dynamics modelling and flight control of a flapping wing micro aerial vehicle (MAV). The equations of motion based on a multi-body representation of the vehicle and the flapping wings were derived and form the basis for the simulation program, which was developed using MATLAB and SIMULINK. The aerodynamic forces were obtained through experimenta...

In this paper, we present the ®rst MEMS-based wing technology that we developed using titanium-alloy metal (Ti±6Al±4V) as wingframe and poly-monochloro-para-xylylene (parylene-C) as wing membrane. With this new MEMS wing technology, we are able to produce light, but robust 3-D wings, optimized to utilize the ̄ow separation to achieve a high lift coef®cient as large as ®ve times that of the ®xed...

This paper investigates the nonlinear dynamics of a vehicle with two flexible flapping wings. The body dynamics and the wings’ deformation are monolithically grouped into a single system of equations, with aerodynamics accounted for by a quasi-steady blade element method. A periodic shooting method is then used to locate closed orbits of this non-autonomous system, and Floquet multipliers asses...

This work examines the control of nonlinear dynamic systems to synthesize a flight controller for Bat Bot (B2). B2 is a bat-inspired Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) which has articulated arm wings with several actuated and passive joints. B2 is designed to mimic the flight apparatus of actual biological bats, which is distinguished from other animals such as birds because bats employ numerous joints...

The aerial environment in the operating domain of small-scale natural and artificial flapping wing fliers is highly complex, unsteady and generally turbulent. Considering flapping flight in an unsteady wind environment with a periodically varying lateral velocity component, we show that body rotations experienced by flapping wing fliers result in the reorientation of the aerodynamic force vecto...

The remarkable maneuverability of flying animals results from precise movements of their highly specialized wings. Bats have evolved an impressive capacity to control their flight, in large part due to their ability to modulate wing shape, area, and angle of attack through many independently controlled joints. Bat wings, however, also contain many bones and relatively large muscles, and thus th...

Mechanisms of aerial righting in juvenile Chukar Partridge (Alectoris chukar) were studied from hatching through 14 days-post-hatching (dph). Asymmetric movements of the wings were used from 1–8 dph to effect progressively more successful righting behaviour via body roll. Following 8 dph, wing motions transitioned to bilaterally symmetric flapping that yielded aerial righting via nose-down pitc...

Recent studies suggest that fruit flies use subtle changes to their wing motion to actively generate forces during aerial maneuvers. In addition, it has been estimated that the passive rotational damping caused by the flapping wings of an insect is around two orders of magnitude greater than that for the body alone. At present, however, the relationships between the active regulation of wing ki...