Abstract
The flapping wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV) has been attracting lots of interest since the 1990s and is one of the research hotspots in microminiaturization design. However, along with the miniaturization of FWMAV development, flight endurance becomes the bottleneck that significantly impedes the rapid development for these aircrafts because of the critical limit in energy supply due to the limited overall size and weight. In this paper, energy recovery technology was developed for FWMAV with the new type polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric wing which could generate the electric potential energy caused by the wing deformation due to the characteristics of the PVDF material. A single crank double rocker mechanism flapping platform was designed to test the deformation energy collection effect and aerodynamic lift. The PVDF wing surface was divided into 16 grid areas to be measured respectively. The lift, output voltage and output power variations for the different flapping frequency was successfully obtained in tests. By analyzing test data, if could be found that the output power could reflect the flutter condition without equipping other sensors and adding extra weight to the aircraft. Moreover, when the flapping frequency was accelerated to 12 Hz, the output power and root mean square (RMS) voltage could increase to 21 μW and 6 V respectively, which is enough to power micro electronic devices such as LED lights.
Highlights
We aimed to investigate further applications of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) material for the flapping wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV)
The feasibility of energy harvesting and wing deformation sensing without increasing extra load on aircrafts was developed for FWMAVs with the new type PVDF piezoelectric wing which could generate the electric potential energy caused by the wing deformation due to the characteristics of the PVDF material
We proposed that 0.06 mm thick double-side conductive copper tape (3M Company, Since existing models require immense computational power and resource to calcuDalian, China) would be appropriate as the middle layer between the PVDF film and late aerodynamic loads acting on the compliant wing surface, direct measurement of these wires
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. With attached solar cells on the wing surface of an aircraft, the operational time obtained a maximum 18.7% increase. As the solar panels on aircraft wing surface increased, the energy would be more collected with the solar cell wing [16,17,18], which meant the potential of photovoltaic devices to harvest energy depends on the size of wing. We aimed to investigate further applications of PVDF material for the FWMAVs. The feasibility of energy harvesting and wing deformation sensing without increasing extra load on aircrafts was developed for FWMAVs with the new type PVDF piezoelectric wing which could generate the electric potential energy caused by the wing deformation due to the characteristics of the PVDF material. A single crank double rocker mechanism flapping platform and aerodynamic force measuring system was designed to test the relevant relationship between piezoelectric voltage and aerodynamic lift
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