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 requir...

The development of air vehicles with competitions has a long history [1]. The first Micro Air Vehicle competition was organized in 1997 at the University of Florida, the same year that the first RoboCup was organized in Nagoya, Japan [2]. From 1997 to 2006 (except 2003) the size of the Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) was reduced. Yet, with the reduced size it became also more and more challenging to ...

Birds and insects naturally use passive flexing of their wings to augment their stability in uncertain aerodynamic environments. In a similar manner, micro air vehicle designers have been investigating using wing articulation to take advantage of this phenomenon. The result is a class of articulated micro air vehicles where artificial passive joints are designed into the lifting surfaces. In or...

This is a final report on the research studies completed under NASA Grant NAG 1-03045, “Development of Micro Air Vehicle Technology with In-Flight Adaptrive-Wing Structure.” This project involved the development of variable-camber technology to achieve efficient design of micro air vehicles. Specifically, it focused on the following topics: 1) Low Reynolds number wind tunnel testing of cambered...

A finite element flow solver based on unstructured grids is employed for studying the aerodynamic characteristics of Micro Air Vehicles. Inviscid and viscous flow simulations were performed for two different Micro Air Vehicles developed at NRL. Lift and drag force variations were computed for a range of flow angles and control surface angles. The Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model was employed for ...

This work describes the intimate fusion of microsystems and physiology though the implantation of a microfluidic device into living insects. Specifically, we focus on the control of Manduca sexta moth flight activity using an implanted, low power electrokinetic drug delivery device. This effort is a critical component in our development of “Insect Micro-Air-Vehicles” which aim to fuse nanodevic...

This paper documents the development and evaluation of an original flexible-wing-based Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) technology that reduces adverse effects of gusty wind conditions and unsteady aerodynamics, exhibits desirable flight stability, and enhances structural durability. The flexible wing concept has been demonstrated on aircraft with wingspans ranging from 18 inches to 5 inches. Salient fe...