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Energy-efficient wing design for flapping wing micro aerial vehicles

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Abstract

Flapping wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs) have attracted more attention during the development of the robotic systems field. The size of the flapping wing plays an important role in the lift force and torque generation based on quasi-steady aerodynamic model. Therefore, it is necessary to study energy-efficient design methods for wings to provide sufficient lift force and torque with minimal energy consumption for hovering flight. In this paper, the sensitive parameters for the lift force and power consumption were first selected based on design of experiment (DOE) and the parameter of the distributed wing stiffness was determined based on experimental data. Design optimization models for three different cases were then built by considering the lift force as one constraint and the energy consumption as the objective function. The combination of subset simulation and the gradient-based optimization was finally used for solving design optimization models, and the corresponding sensitivity analysis was provided.

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Abbreviations

R :

Wing span

C R :

Wing root chord

C T :

Wing tip chord

AR :

Aspect ratio

c̄ :

Mean chord length

S :

Wing area

d̂ :

The chord-normalized distance from the pitching axis to the leading edge

ϕ m :

Sweeping amplitude

ϕ 0 :

Horizontal offset

f :

Frequency

θ m :

Heaving amplitude

Φθ :

Heaving phase offset

θ 0 :

Heaving offset

k η :

The distributed wing stiffness

ω c :

Angular velocity

α c :

Angular acceleration

ρ f :

Fluid density

\(C_{F_{y_c}}^{\rm{trans}}\) :

Translational force coefficient

\(\hat{z}_{cp}^{\rm{trans}}\) :

Normalized chordwise center of pressure

α̂ :

Angle of attack

\(C_D^{\rm{rot}}\) :

Rotational damping coefficient

τ iner :

Inertial torque

P* :

Total mass-normalized power consumption

d̂ r :

d̂ at the wing root

d̂ t :

d̂ at the wing tip

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the Contract No. 11472075. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China

    Zhonglai Wang, Xiaorong Hu & Yingdong Wu

  2. Center for System Reliability and Safety, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China

    Zhonglai Wang, Xiaorong Hu & Yingdong Wu

Authors
  1. Zhonglai Wang
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  2. Xiaorong Hu
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  3. Yingdong Wu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhonglai Wang.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Sungsoo Na

Zhonglai Wang is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China where he received his Ph.D. in 2009. His research interests include design optimization of flapping wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs), system reliability modeling, reliability-based design optimization, robust design and model validation.

Xiaorong Hu obtained his M.S. in Mechatronics Engineering at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests include performance analysis and design optimization of flapping wing micro aerial vehicles s (FWMAVs).

Yingdong Wu is a Master’s student in Mechatronics Engineering at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests include design optimization of flapping wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs).

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Wang, Z., Hu, X. & Wu, Y. Energy-efficient wing design for flapping wing micro aerial vehicles. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 4093–4104 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0804-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0804-1

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