The Development of a Miniature Flexible Flapping Wing Mechanism for Use in a Robotic Air Vehicle

In this study a mechanism which produced flapping and pitching motions was designed and fabricated. These motions were produced by using a single electric motor and by exploiting flexible structures. The aerodynamic forces generated by flexible membrane type wings were measured using a two degree of freedom force balance constructed during the course of these experiments which measured the aerodynamic forces of lift and thrust. Lift and thrust measurements were acquired as the mechanism flapped the flexible wings in nine cases, and the two most interesting conditions were explored in more detail. These two conditions consisted of a zero velocity free stream condition and a forward flight condition of 5 m/s. For these two conditions, high-speed video of the flapping wing was taken. The images from the video were also correlated with cycle averaged aerodynamic forces produced by the mechanism. Several observations were made regarding the behavior of flexible flapping wings that should aid in the design of future flexible flapping wing vehicles.