Study of Biologically Inspired Flapping Mechanism for Micro Air Vehicles

This paper explores the design of a flapping mechanism inspired by the insect thorax. A two-degree-of-freedom model of the insect thorax is developed that governs the flapping and rotational (pitching) motions of the wing. The wing kinematics are optimized experimentally using a dynamically scaled wing driven by a robotic flapper. Next, optimal parameters of the thorax model are determined in order to generate the optimal wing kinematics. For this purpose, analytical methods as well as numerical optimization are used. This analysis also reveals the significance of the mechanical design of the insect wing in improving aerodynamic performance. A prototype mechanism is developed based on the thorax model. Experimental evaluation of the mechanism shows good agreement with theoretical results. Additionally, the design is very simple and shows substantial lift generation capability.