Mechanism Design of a Bio-inspired Armwing Mechanism for Mimicking Bat Flapping Gait

Enforcing nonholonomic constraints in Aerobat, a roosting flapping wing model

Flapping wing flight is a challenging dynamical problem and is also a very fascinating subject to study in the field of biomimetic robotics. A Bat, in particular, has a very articulated armwing mechanism with high degrees-of-freedom and flexibility which allows the animal to perform highly dynamic and complex maneuvers, such as upside-down perching. This paper presents the derivation of a multi-body dynamical system of a bio-inspired bat robot called Aerobat which captures multiple biologically meaningful degrees-of-freedom for flapping flight that is present in biological bats. Then, the work…

Mechanical design and fabrication of a kinetic sculpture with application to bioinspired drone design

Biologically-inspired robots are a very interesting and difficult branch of robotics dues to its very rich dynamical and morphological complexities. Among them, flying animals, such as bats, have been among the most difficult to take inspiration from as they exhibit complex wing articulation. We attempt to capture several of the key degrees-of-freedom that are present in the natural flapping gait of a bat. In this work, we present the mechanical design and analysis of our flapping wing robot, the Aerobat, where we capture the plunging and flexion-extension in the bat's flapping modes. This rob…

Wake-Based Locomotion Gait Design for Aerobat

Flying animals, such as bats, fly through their fluidic environment as they create air jets and form wake structures downstream of their flight path. Bats, in particular, dynamically morph their highly flexible and dexterous armwing to manipulate their fluidic environment which is key to their agility and flight efficiency. This paper presents the theoretical and numerical analysis of the wake-structure-based gait design inspired by bat flight for flapping robots using the notion of reduced-order models and unsteady aerodynamic model incorporating Wagner function. The objective of this paper i…

An Experimental Study of Wind Resistance and Power Consumption in MAVs with a Low-Speed Multi-Fan Wind System

This paper discusses a low-cost, open-source and open-hardware design and performance evaluation of a low-speed, multi-fan wind system dedicated to micro air vehicle (MAV) testing. In addition, a set of experiments with a flapping wing MAV and rotorcraft is presented, demonstrating the capabilities of the system and the properties of these different types of drones in response to various types of wind. We performed two sets of experiments where a MAV is flying into the wake of the fan system, gathering data about states, battery voltage and current. Firstly, we focus on steady wind conditions …

扑翼机器人的实验能耗分析

Experimental Energy Consumption Analysis of a Flapping-Wing Robot

针对扑翼飞行机器人的节能需求，本文实验测量电机电子组件与视觉系统在发射、上升及巡航阶段的功耗，并比较事件相机和立体视觉系统能耗，为延长飞行时间提供依据。

甲虫与扑翼微型机器人的被动翅膀展开与收回

Passive wing deployment and retraction in beetles and flapping microrobots

该研究结合高速观测与机器人模型，揭示独角仙后翅展开和收回依赖鞘翅与扑动产生的被动机制，并以此实现微型扑翼机器人的被动展翅与收翼。