A Modified Quasisteady Aerodynamic Model for a Sub-100 mg Insect-Inspired Flapping-Wing Robot

Chenyang Wang; Weiping Zhang; Junqi Hu; Jiaxin Zhao; Yang Zou

doi:10.1155/2020/8850036

A Modified Quasisteady Aerodynamic Model for a Sub-100 mg Insect-Inspired Flapping-Wing Robot

Appl Bionics Biomech. 2020 Dec 22:2020:8850036. doi: 10.1155/2020/8850036. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Chenyang Wang¹, Weiping Zhang¹, Junqi Hu¹, Jiaxin Zhao¹, Yang Zou¹

Affiliation

¹ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.

Abstract

This study proposes a modified quasisteady aerodynamic model for the sub-100-milligram insect-inspired flapping-wing robot presented by the authors in a previous paper. The model, which is based on blade-element theory, considers the aerodynamic mechanisms of circulation, dissipation, and added-mass, as well as the inertial effect. The aerodynamic force and moment acting on the wing are calculated based on the two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) wing kinematics of flapping and rotating. In order to validate the model, we used a binocular high-speed photography system and a customized lift measurement system to perform simultaneous measurements of the wing kinematics and the lift of the robot under different input voltages. The results of these measurements were all in close agreement with the estimates generated by the proposed model. In addition, based on the model, this study analyzes the 2-DOF flapping-wing dynamics of the robot and provides an estimate of the passive rotation-the main factor in generating lift-from the measured flapping kinematics. The analysis also reveals that the calculated rotating kinematics of the wing under different input voltages accord well with the measured rotating kinematics. We expect that the model presented here will be useful in developing a control strategy for our sub-100 mg insect-inspired flapping-wing robot.