Abstract

In this paper, we suggest a novel transmission for the DC motor-based flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs). Most DC motor-based FWMAVs employ linkage structures, such as a crank-rocker or a crank-slider, which are designed to transmit the motor’s rotating motion to the wing’s flapping motion. These transmitting linkages have shown successful performance; however, they entail the possibility of mechanical wear originating from the friction between relative moving components and require an onerous assembly process owing to several tiny components. To reduce the assembly process and wear problems, we present a geometrically constrained and origami-based spherical six-bar linkage. The origami-based fabrication method reduces the number of the relative moving components by replacing rigid links and pin joints with facets and folding joints, which shortens the assembly process and reduces friction between components. The constrained spherical six-bar linkage enables us to change the motor’s rotating motion to the linear reciprocating motion. Due to the property that every axis passes through a single central point, the motor’s rotating motion is filtered at the spherical linkage and does not transfer to the flapping wing. Only linear motion, therefore, is passed to the flapping wing. To show the feasibility of the idea, a prototype is fabricated and analyzed by measuring the flapping angle, the wing rotation angle and the thrust.

Highlights

  • Flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) have been widely studied due to their agility and maneuverability in the air

  • To enable successful working of FWMAVs, researchers have employed a variety of actuators such as DC motors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19], piezoelectric actuators [20,21,22,23], electromagnetic actuators [24,25,26,27,28], and electrostatic actuators [6,29]

  • In this paper, we suggest a novel transmission mechanism to reduce the assembly process and wear problems for the DC motor-based FWMAVs

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Summary

Introduction

Flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) have been widely studied due to their agility and maneuverability in the air. To enable successful working of FWMAVs, researchers have employed a variety of actuators such as DC motors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19], piezoelectric actuators [20,21,22,23], electromagnetic actuators [24,25,26,27,28], and electrostatic actuators [6,29] Among these actuators, in this paper, we suggest a novel transmission mechanism to reduce the assembly process and wear problems for the DC motor-based FWMAVs. In the case of DC motor-based FWMAVs, most of them use linkage structures to transmit the motor’s rotating motion to the wing’s flapping motion.

Design
Flapping
Snapshots
Mechanism Analysis
Kinematic
Parameter Selection
Experimental Results
Flapping Mechanism
Snapshots flapping at 23
Conclusions
Full Text
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