Design and Fabrication of Ultralight High-Voltage Power Circuits for Flapping-Wing Robotic Insects

Flapping-wing robotic insects are small, highly maneuverable flying robots inspired by biologicalinsects and useful for a wide range of tasks, including exploration, environmental monitoring, searchand rescue, and surveillance. Recently, robotic insects driven by piezoelectric actuators have achievedthe important goal of taking off with external power; however, fully autonomous operation requiresan ultralight power supply capable of generating high-voltage drive signals from low-voltage energysources. This paper describes high-voltage switching circuit topologies and control methods suitablefor driving piezoelectric actuators in flapping-wing robotic insects and discusses the physicalimplementation of these topologies, including the fabrication of custom magnetic components bylaser micromachining and other weight minimization echniques. The performance of lasermicromachined magnetics and custom-wound commercial magnetics is compared through theexperimental realization of a tapped inductor boost converter capable of stepping up a 3.7V Li-polycell input to 200V. The potential of laser micromachined magnetics is further shown byimplementing a similar converter weighing 20mg (not including control functionality) and capable ofup to 70mW output at 200V and up to 100mW at 100V.