Design, fabrication and control of the micromechanical flying insect

The Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) project aims it achieving some of the extraordinary flight performance of insects by creating a centimeter-sized flying robot capable of sustained autonomous flight. The core mechanical component used in the MFI is analogous to the insect thorax. It consists of a series of transmission element's for converting piezoelectric actuator motion into complex wing flapping and rotation capable of reproducing some aspects of insect wing motion. This work explores in detail the design, fabrication and control of the thorax. In particular, we show that by carefully "tuning" the design of the MFI thorax, while accounting for the aerodynamics, it is possible to utilize a simple control strategy while still generating flight forces on a test stand, sufficient for take-off.