Aerodynamic Characteristics and Pitching Adjusting Mechanism of the Flying Squirrel With Deployed Patagium

Fei Zhao,Justyna Wyrwa,Wei Wang,Jingtao Zhang,Feng Sun

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2961451

Fei Zhao, Justyna Wyrwa + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2961451

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Abstract

The flying squirrel has a balanced amphibious ability on land and air, especially the ability to glide using their patagium, which makes it an excellent biomimetic object in the design and development of multimodal locomotion robots. This paper presents the study of aerodynamic characteristics and pitching adjusting mechanism of the flying squirrel with deployed patagium. A 3D geometric model of the flying squirrel with unfolded wing membrane was obtained using 3D scanning technique. Then a simulation analysis based on computational fluid dynamics software and a wind tunnel experiment on the animal specimen were carried out to analyze and evaluate the aerodynamic characteristics. After that, the pitching adjusting mechanism of flying squirrels during gliding was numerical simulated by establishing the pitching dynamics model. The results from above research not only enrich our understanding of gliding mechanism of flying squirrels, but also provide important biological inspiration for the design and development of multimodal robots in the future.

Highlights

Multimodal robots that are capable of both aerial and terrestrial locomotion are ideal scheme for reconnaissance or search missions in unstructured terrains, such as battlefields and disaster areas [1]–[3]
The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results indicate that angles of attack and velocities have important effects on aerodynamic distribution and value on flying squirrels, which means that the bionic gliding robot can make use of angles of attack and velocities to change its bearing force state for adjusting the gliding attitude and trajectory
Using (8) and (12), gliding of flying squirrels was numerical simulated with MATLAB

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Multimodal robots that are capable of both aerial and terrestrial locomotion are ideal scheme for reconnaissance or search missions in unstructured terrains, such as battlefields and disaster areas [1]–[3]. D. CFD SIMULATION RESULTS The software ANSYS Fluent R16.2 was used for simulation of the aerodynamic characteristics, and the pressure and velocity distributions on the surface of flying squirrels at different speeds and angles of attack were obtained. The CFD simulation results indicate that angles of attack and velocities have important effects on aerodynamic distribution and value on flying squirrels, which means that the bionic gliding robot can make use of angles of attack and velocities to change its bearing force state for adjusting the gliding attitude and trajectory. The aerodynamic characteristics of the flying squirrel with deployed patagium are similar to those of rectangular thin plates, and this is of important reference value for the design of multimodal robots with flying squirrels as bionic prototype

WIND TUNNEL EXPERIMENT

PITCHING DYNAMICS MODEL

Findings

CONCLUSION