Design for Flapping Wing Micro Vehicle Using 6-Bar Linkage Mechanism

Abstract

Recently, there occurs rise and growth of the research on the flapping wing vehicles by mimicking the biological motion. Its result is so-called the Flapping Micro Aerial Vehicle (FWMAV). In this thesis, design requirements for FWMAV were established by using an analytical tool and unsteady blade element theory (UBET). Based on the present FWMAV design requirements, flapping wing mechanism using a six-bar linkage was devised. Moreover, the present mechanisms were analyzed by using the flexible multi-body dynamic analysis to ensure its structural robustness. By completing such procedure, behavior of the present mechanism was estimated. Then, detail design was conducted. Currently, structural analysis regarding the present mechanism was conducted under the flapping operation in vacuum. And the resulting von-Misses stresses in the linkage were designed to be smaller than the yield stress of the chosen material. After that, detail design and experiment of the present FWMAV were conducted for validating the performance, such as aerodynamic force, flapping frequency and flapping amplitude.