Flap-control mechanism for flapping-wing micro air vehicles

Flapping-wing micro air vehicles controlled by tail are poor in stability and maneuverability. A crank-slider and double-pendulum control mechanism which integrates flap and control and provides a good maneuverability by breaking the symmetry between the flapping motions of two lateral wings is proposed for the design of flapping-wing micro air vehicles. The kinematics of this mechanism is analyzed and the effects of flapping angles, flapping amplitudes, and the differences between the flapping angles of two lateral wings on the maneuverability are discussed. The results indicate that flapping angle differences between two lateral wings generated by breaking the symmetry play the most important role in providing good maneuverability. The maneuverability of turning is obtained by moving the pivots of the flapping bars in the system and a servo-gear-rack device is used to realize the movement. The proposed novel flap-control mechanism is compact and easy to control.