The design of flapping-wing micro air-vehicles presents many engineering challenges. As observed by biologists, insects and birds exhibit complex three-dimensional wing motions. It is believed that these unique patterns of wing motion create favorable aerodynamic forces that enable these species to fly forward, hover, and execute complex motions. From the perspective of micro air-vehicle applications, extremely light-weight designs that accomplish these motions of the wing, using just a single or a few actuators, are preferable. This paper presents a method to design a spherical four-bar flapping mechanism that approximates a given spatial flapping motion of a wing, considered to have favorable aerodynamics. A spherical flapping mechanism was then constructed and its aerodynamic performance was compared to the original spatially moving wing using an instrumented robotic flapper with force sensors.
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e-mail: matthew.p.mcdonald@gmail.com
e-mail: agrawal@udel.edu
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Design of a Bio-Inspired Spherical Four-Bar Mechanism for Flapping-Wing Micro Air-Vehicle Applications
Matt McDonald,
Matt McDonald
Graduate Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: matthew.p.mcdonald@gmail.com
University of Delaware
, Newark, DE 19716
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Sunil K. Agrawal
Sunil K. Agrawal
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: agrawal@udel.edu
University of Delaware
, Newark, DE 19716
Search for other works by this author on:
Matt McDonald
Graduate Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Delaware
, Newark, DE 19716e-mail: matthew.p.mcdonald@gmail.com
Sunil K. Agrawal
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Delaware
, Newark, DE 19716e-mail: agrawal@udel.edu
J. Mechanisms Robotics. May 2010, 2(2): 021012 (6 pages)
Published Online: May 3, 2010
Article history
Received:
April 28, 2008
Revised:
October 12, 2009
Online:
May 3, 2010
Published:
May 3, 2010
Citation
McDonald, M., and Agrawal, S. K. (May 3, 2010). "Design of a Bio-Inspired Spherical Four-Bar Mechanism for Flapping-Wing Micro Air-Vehicle Applications." ASME. J. Mechanisms Robotics. May 2010; 2(2): 021012. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4001460
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