Design,Fabrication And Test Of The Insect-inspired Flapping-wing Micro Air Vehicles

Flapping-wing insects manifest agility,maneuverability,and stability and can produce lift several times higher than their own weight.In the past few decades,many scientists and engineers have been exploring the aerodynamic mechanisms of insect flapping flight,and trying to create insect-inspired flapping-wing micro air vehicles(FMAVs).Because of the advantages inheriting from the insects,FMAVs can perform special tasks such as search,rescue,surveillance,exploration,and reconnaissance in narrow spaces where large flying robots cannot access.In this dissertation,some research work is carried out for the insect-inspired FMAVs as follows.Based on the blade element method,a quasi-steady-state aerodynamic model of insect flapping flight is built in the dissertation.This model is used to analyze the aerodynamic forces and moments generated by the wing of the insect-inspired FMAV.In addition,using the principle of virtual work,ordinary differential equations of the two-degree-of-freedom dynamics of the wing are derived and numerically solved.By studying the movement of the muscle,tergum and wing during insect flapping flight,a novel method is proposed for creating insect-inspired FMAVs.This method has taken into account the structural design,fiber distribution,space arrangement,electrical isolation,fabrication precision and assembly relationship of micro components.The design of the piezoelectric actuator has taken into account the electrical isolation and assembly issues.The electromagnetic actuator is designed in consideration of the space arrangement and assembly relationship.The transmission and the airframe are designed to avoid difficulties of fabrication and assembly.Fiber directions of wing veins are reasonably arranged to possess high strength and stiffness.By using this method,two kinds of insect-inspired FMAVs are developed,which can successfully produce sufficient lift to take off.Specifically,the piezoelectric driven insect-inspired FMAV,which weighs 84 mg with a wingspan of 35 mm,can generate a flapping amplitude approximately ±60° under the resonant wingbeat frequency of 100 Hz.The electromagnetically driven insect-inspired FMAV,with weight of 80 mg and a wingspan of 35 mm,can create a flapping amplitude about ±70° under the flapping frequency of 80 Hz.In addition,a monolithic method is also presented for designing and fabricating insect-inspired FMAVs in this dissertation.Most of the components(especially those with assembly relations)are integrated and fabricated from a single sheet.This method can avoid the assembly between components,thereby reducing the errors of manual processes.By using this method,an 80 mg monolithic electromagnetically driven insect-inspired FMAV is created and is capable of liftoff.In this dissertation,a series of test platforms are built to evaluate the performance of the insect-inspired FMAVs and their components.Based on NI-Labview,a virtual instrument platform is built,which can synchronously realize multi-channel signal generation and data acquisition.Experimental platforms are established to test the performance of the piezoelectric actuator and the electromagnetic actuator.Wing kinematics of the electromagnetically driven insect-inspired FMAV are captured by double high-speed cameras together with the motion analysis software named ProAnalyst.A sensor with high sensitivity,high resolution and high bandwidth is designed to measure the real-time lift generated by the insect-inspired FMAV.In short,inspired by the bionics principles,a quasi-steady-state aerodynamic model of insect flight is established in this dissertation.Furthermore,researches on the design,fabrication and test of the insect-inspired FMAVs are systematically presented.The design theory,fabrication processes and assembly methods are eventually proved to be applicable and feasible.The work in this dissertation provides theoretical bases,design methods and technical approaches for realizing autonomous flight of insect-inspired FMAVs in the future.