Bionic Flying Robot: Design, Fabrication and Experiment

Abstract

Bionic flying robots are new conceptual air vehicles that mimic the flying modes of birds and insects. They have the advantages of small sizes, light weights, low costs, good stealth abilities and high maneuverability, and widely used in the fields of military and civil applications. Based on statistics and analysis of structural parameters, kinematical parameters and dynamic parameters of 68 types of different birds, the bionic formulas was brought forth and original flying robot design was carried out. According to the bionic results, the flapping mechanism and the flexible wing of flapping-wing flying robot were designed. The aerodynamic characteristics of the flapping wing movement were analyzed emphatically. According to the status and function of each part, the system configuration of flying robot can be divided into five child systems. The robot prototype is driven by micro DC motor and polymer lithium battery, and made of carbon fiber fuselage and polyester membrane wing. The total weight of the robot is about 16.5g, wingspan is 200mm, and beat frequency is 12~15Hz. The wind tunnel experiments results indicated that the aerodynamic forces increased by the increase of flapping frequency, wind velocity and attack angle of the wing. Flying test and experiments verified the effectivity and feasibility of the design. The results of research are helpful to the design, fabrication and application of bionic flying robot.KeywordsBionic flying robotBionic designflapping mechanismwind tunnel experiment