Development and Analysis of Gull Inspired UAV Flapping Wing

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are the aircraft which are controlled remotely or autonomously. They can be characterized on the basis of type of wings used, namely fixed, flapping and rotary wing UAVs. They can be used for various military and civil applications. Present study is focused on flapping wing UAVs. Natural fliers are the master of flapping flight and can be taken as inspiration for developing an efficient flapping UAV model. In this study a flapping wing system, inspired from Black Headed Gull, is developed and tested for its kinematic and aerodynamic characteristics. Like the original biological structure, the developed model has a shoulder joint, an elbow joint, and a wrist joint. Laser displacement sensor and digital image correlation setups were used for kinematic testing. The aerodynamic analysis was carried out using six component force balance in wind tunnel at different wind speeds and angle of attacks. It was found that the wing performed flapping motion similar to the gull with independent control of each joint. Also, the effect of each joint was observed on the lift, thrust and moments generated by the model during flight. It was observed that the developed model showed similar properties as compared to its biological inspiration.

[1]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Towards flapping wing control for a micromechanical flying insect , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[2]  C. Ellington.  The novel aerodynamics of insect flight: applications to micro-air vehicles. , 1999, The Journal of experimental biology.

[3]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  Wing transmission for a micromechanical flying insect , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[4]  Matthew,et al.  Design & Development of a Thrust Augmented Entomopter: An Advanced Flapping Wing Micro Hovering Air Vehicle , 2003 .

[5]  J. D. Delaurier,et al.  Experimental study of oscillating-wing propulsion , 1982 .

[6]  Sunil K. Agrawal,et al.  Design and Optimization of a Mechanism for Out-of-Plane Insect Winglike Motion With Twist , 2005 .

[7]  M. Goldfarb,et al.  The Development of Elastodynamic Components for Piezoelectrically Actuated Flapping Micro-Air Vehicles , 2002 .

[8]  V. Baskar,et al.  Lift and Thrust Characteristics of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) , 2005 .

[9]  Berg,et al.  The moment of inertia of bird wings and the inertial power requirement for flapping flight , 1995, The Journal of experimental biology.

[10]  Inderjit Chopra,et al.  Insect-Based Hover-Capable Flapping Wings for Micro Air Vehicles: Experiments and Analysis , 2008 .

[11]  J. Gordon Leishman,et al.  Experimental Studies on Insect-Based Flapping Wings for Micro Hovering Air Vehicles , 2005 .

[12]  Colin J Pennycuick,et al.  Predicting Wingbeat Frequency and Wavelength of Birds , 1990 .

[13]  T.N. Pornsin-Sirirak,et al.  MEMS wing technology for a battery-powered ornithopter , 2000, Proceedings IEEE Thirteenth Annual International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Cat. No.00CH36308).

[14]  David L. Raney,et al.  Mechanization and Control Concepts for Biologically Inspired Micro Air Vehicles , 2004 .

[15]  G. K. Ananthasuresh,et al.  A Novel Compliant Mechanism for Converting Reciprocating Translation Into Enclosing Curved Paths , 2004 .

[16]  P. M. Mohite,et al.  Design and Kinematic Analysis of Gull Inspired Flapping Wing Model , 2015 .

[17]  Stuart C Burgess,et al.  The development of a miniature mechanism for producing insect wing motion , 2004 .

[18]  Tianshu Liu,et al.  Avian Wing Geometry and Kinematics , 2006 .

[19]  Rafal Zbikowski,et al.  Four-Bar Linkage Mechanism for Insectlike Flapping Wings in Hover: Concept and an Outline of Its Realization , 2005 .

[20]  Michael J. C. Smith,et al.  Simulating moth wing aerodynamics - Towards the development of flapping-wing technology , 1996 .

[21]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  Wing force map characterization and simulation for the micromechanical flying insect , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[22]  F. Lehmann,et al.  The fluid dynamics of flight control by kinematic phase lag variation between two robotic insect wings , 2004, Journal of Experimental Biology.

[23]  R. Zbikowski,et al.  Insect-like flapping wing mechanism based on a double spherical Scotch yoke , 2005, Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

[24]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Lift force improvements for the micromechanical flying insect , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[25]  C. Ellington,et al.  The three–dimensional leading–edge vortex of a ‘hovering’ model hawkmoth , 1997 .

[26]  Metin Sitti.  PZT actuated four-bar mechanism with two flexible links for micromechanical flying insect thorax , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[27]  Adrian L. R. Thomas,et al.  Dragonfly flight: free-flight and tethered flow visualizations reveal a diverse array of unsteady lift-generating mechanisms, controlled primarily via angle of attack , 2004, Journal of Experimental Biology.