Enhancing the Design of Solar-Powered Flapping Wing Air Vehicles Using Multifunctional Structural Components

Abstract

Flapping wing aerial vehicles (FWAVs) are limited to small batteries due to constraints on the available onboard payload. To increase the energy available for the vehicle, solar cells can be integrated to harvest energy during flight. This addition of available onboard energy increases the flight time of the vehicle and could eventually lead to an infinite flight as long as there is sunlight. However, integration of solar cells is expected to alter flight performance. The changes in performance must be measured and understood. Previously, solar cells have been integrated to the wings of Robo Raven III, a FWAV developed at the University of Maryland. Changes in flight performance were observed, but ultimately the vehicle was still able to maintain flight and an increase in flight time was observed. This paper extends the previous work and further integrates solar cells to the body and tail of the FWAV. Different tail designs were built and the change in performance caused by the difference in each tail was measured and compared. The new FWAV generated 1.8W more than the previous Robo Raven IIIv2 design. The best tail design has provided the longest operational flight time so far and is known as Robo Raven IIIv3. This new platform benefited from an improved tail design and carried 13g more than the original Robo Raven III tail, despite an increase in vehicle mass.