J024011 羽ばたき飛行ロボットの弾性翼の空気力学的デザイン

Abstract

Research and development of Micro air vehicles (MAVs) with a maximal dimension less than 15 cm have been a very hot topic in the last decade. MAVs are desired to be capable of performing missions such as environmental monitoring, surveillance, and assessment in dangerous environments. Currently most Bio-inspired MAVs have four wings, while many insects and birds can fly by two wings. In this study, especially focusing on the wing structure and in-flight deformation of flapping wings, we evaluated the aerodynamic performance of single flapping wing which has a semi-elliptic planform and is made of a polyethylene film, a carbon rod at leading edge and aluminum rod at wing base. The mean thrust forces by the flapping wings were measured by attaching the wings onto the newly developed measurement system. The aerodynamic performances of the flapping wings in terms of flexible wing kinematics and vortex structures and their relationship with aerodynamic force generation were further investigated by combining the reconstruction of three-dimensional wing kinematics and the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. The flexible wing kinematics, and the force generation by flexible flapping wings accordingly, was found to be strongly affected by the flapping frequency, wing beat amplitude and wing structure which suggest that the optimum wing structure for flapping MAV is dependent on the wing kinematics at wing base.