Today, Flapping Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) are used in many different applications. Reynolds Number for this kind of aerial vehicle is about 104 ~ 105 which shows dominancy of inertial effects in comparison of viscous effects in flow field except adjacent of the solid boundaries. Due to periodic flapping stroke, fluid flow is unsteady. In addition, these creatures have some complexities in kin...

The development of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) demands a systematic exploration of the available design space to identify ways in which the unsteady mechanisms governing flapping-wing flight can best be utilized for producing optimal thrust or maneuverability. Mimicking the wing kinematics of biological flight requires examining the potential effects of wing morphology on flight per...

This paper responds to research into the aerodynamics of flapping wings and to the problem of the lack of an adequate method which accommodates large-scale trailing vortices. A comparative review is provided of prevailing aerodynamic methods, highlighting their respective limitations as well as strengths. The main advantages of an unsteady aerodynamic panel method are then introduced and illust...

A lightweight flapping-wing micro air vehicle (MAV) was designed and built and successfully filed in the sky. The unsteady aerodynamics associated with this MAV was detailedly studied by using the method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD).The variations of different parameters of the flapping MAV, such as flapping amplitude, pitch amplitude and flapping frequency, were investigated with nume...

Flapping wing vehicles, or ornithopters, have proven difficult to control due to the unsteady flow generated by the high-speed flapping surfaces. To-date, research has focused on computational models from which fixed flapping strokes are optimized. These strokes are then fixed and executed open-loop in practice with flapping speed as the primary control output for climb and descent. This paper ...

The flight of birds or insects has fascinated scholars and physicists for many centuries. Flapping motion, as shown by many nature flyers, is the most efficient way of flying objects whose size are smaller than or around 6 inches. In this chapter, the author introduced how to use modern technology to fabricate the flapping wings for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) with flexibility and smartness. T...

The development of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) demands a systematic exploration of the available design space to identify ways in which the unsteady mechanisms governing flapping-wing flight can best be utilized for producing optimal thrust or maneuverability. Mimicking the wing kinematics of biological flight requires examining the potential effects of wing morphology on flight per...

The development of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) demands a systematic exploration of the available design space to identify ways in which the unsteady mechanisms governing flapping-wing flight can best be utilized for producing optimal thrust or maneuverability. Mimicking the wing kinematics of biological flight requires examining the potential effects of wing morphology on flight per...

Most birds and many insects use periodic wing motion to propel themselves and maneuver. Most conventional flying machines are propelled by rotating machinery, achieve lift through rotating or fixed wings, and are controlled through the production of steady aerodynamic forces produced by rotors or movable wings. Many of the first powered flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) effectively replac...

Insect- and bird-size drones-micro air vehicles (MAV) that can perform autonomous flight in natural and man-made environments are now an active and well-integrated research area. MAVs normally operate at a low speed in a Reynolds number regime of 10(4)-10(5) or lower, in which most flying animals of insects, birds and bats fly, and encounter unconventional challenges in generating sufficient ae...