Trajectory control and dynamic modeling of a tailless flapping-wing robot

The DelFly Nimble is a type of tailless flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) that has received an increasing amount of attention. FWMAVs show efficient and agile flight possibilities at small scale. The aerodynamics and dynamics of these flapping vehicles are challenging and not fully understood. In this work, a strategy to implement a 3D...

A minimal longitudinal dynamic model of a tailless flapping wing robot for control design

Recently, several insect- and hummingbird-inspired tailless flapping wing robots have been introduced. However, their flight dynamics, which are likely to be similar to that of their biological counterparts, remain yet to be fully understood. We propose a minimal dynamic model that is not only validated with experimental data, but also able...

Accurate position control of a flapping-wing robot enabling free-flight flow visualisation in a wind tunnel

Flow visualisations are essential to better understand the unsteady aerodynamics of flapping wing flight. The issues inherent to animal experiments, such as poor controllability and unnatural flapping when tethered, can be avoided by using robotic flyers that promise for a more systematic and repeatable methodology. Here, we present a new...

Effect of chordwise deformation on unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms in hovering flapping flight

A three-dimensional simulation of hovering flapping wings was performed using an immersed boundary method. This was done to investigate the effects of chordwise wing deformation on three important unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms found in flapping flight, namely Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) shedding, wake capture and clap and fling. A wing was...