Flapping-wing flight, as the distinctive flight method retained by natural flying creatures, contains profound aerodynamic principles and brings great inspirations and encouragements to drone developers. Though some i...Flapping-wing flight, as the distinctive flight method retained by natural flying creatures, contains profound aerodynamic principles and brings great inspirations and encouragements to drone developers. Though some ingenious flapping-wing robots have been designed during the past two decades, development and application of autonomous flapping-wing robots are less successful and still require further research. Here, we report the development of a servo-driven bird-like flapping-wing robot named USTBird-I and its application in autonomous airdrop.Inspired by birds, a camber structure and a dihedral angle adjustment mechanism are introduced into the airfoil design and motion control of the wings, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics simulations and actual flight tests show that this bionic design can significantly improve the gliding performance of the robot, which is beneficial to the execution of the airdrop mission.Finally, a vision-based airdrop experiment has been successfully implemented on USTBird-I, which is the first demonstration of a bird-like flapping-wing robot conducting an outdoor airdrop mission.展开更多
A novel variable camber wing driven by ultrasonic motors is proposed.Key techniques of distributed layout of drive mechanisms,coordination control of distributed ultrasonic motors as well as novel flexible skin underg...A novel variable camber wing driven by ultrasonic motors is proposed.Key techniques of distributed layout of drive mechanisms,coordination control of distributed ultrasonic motors as well as novel flexible skin undergoing one-dimensional morphing are studied.The system integration of small variable camber wing is achieved.Distributed layout of parallelogram linkages driven by geared ultrasonic motors is adopted for morphing,aimed at reducing the load for each motor and producing various aerodynamic configurations suitable for different flying states.Programmable system-on-chip(PSoC)is used to realize the coordination control of the distributed ultrasonic motors.All the morphing driving systems are assembled in the interior of the wing.The wing surface is covered with a novel smooth flexible skin in order to maintain wing shape and decrease the aerodynamic drag during morphing.Wind tunnel test shows that the variable camber wing can realize morphing under low speed flight condition.Lift and drag characteristics and aerodynamic efficiency of the wing are improved.Appropriate configurations can be selected to satisfy aerodynamic requirements of different flight conditions.The study provides a practical application of piezoelectric precision driving technology in flow control.展开更多
The knowledge of wing orientation and deformation during flapping flight is necessary for a complete aerodynamic analysis, but to date those kinematic features have not been simultaneously quantified for free-flying i...The knowledge of wing orientation and deformation during flapping flight is necessary for a complete aerodynamic analysis, but to date those kinematic features have not been simultaneously quantified for free-flying insects. A projected comb-fringe (PCF) method has been developed for measuring spanwise camber changes on free-flying dragonflies and on beating-flying dragonflies through the course of a wingbeat, which bases on projecting a fringe pattern over the whole measurement area and then measuring the wing deformation from the distorted fringe pattern. Experimental results demonstrate substantial camber changes both along the wingspan and through the course of a wingbeat. The ratio of camber deformation to chord length for hind wing is up to 0.11 at 75% spanwise with a flapping angle of -0.66 degree for a free-flying dragonfly.展开更多
Variable camber wing technology is one of the important development trends of green aviation at present.Through smooth,seamless,continuous and adaptive change of wing camber,the aerodynamic performance is improved in ...Variable camber wing technology is one of the important development trends of green aviation at present.Through smooth,seamless,continuous and adaptive change of wing camber,the aerodynamic performance is improved in achieving increase in lift and reduction in resistance and noise.Based on the aerodynamic validation model CAE-AVM,Chinese Aeronautical Establishment(CAE)has carried out the design and validation of a variable camber wing,proposed an aerodynamic deformation matrix for the leading and trailing edges of aircraft wings in takeoff,landing and cruise conditions.Various structures and driving schemes are compared,and several key technology problems of leading and trailing edge deformation are solved.A full-size leading edge wind tunnel test piece with a span of 2.7 m and a trailing edge ground function test piece are developed.The deformation and shape maintenance capabilities of the leading edge is verified under real wind load conditions,and the load bearing and deformation capabilities of the trailing edge is verified under simulated follow-on load.The results indicate that the leading and trailing edges of the variable camber wing can achieve the required deformation angle and have a certain load-bearing capacity.Our study can provide some insights into the application of variable camber wing technology for civil aircraft.展开更多
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62225304,61933001,61921004,62173031)the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation(JQ20026)+1 种基金the Beijing Top Discipline for Artificial Intelligent Science and Engineering,University of Science and Technology Beijing。
文摘Flapping-wing flight, as the distinctive flight method retained by natural flying creatures, contains profound aerodynamic principles and brings great inspirations and encouragements to drone developers. Though some ingenious flapping-wing robots have been designed during the past two decades, development and application of autonomous flapping-wing robots are less successful and still require further research. Here, we report the development of a servo-driven bird-like flapping-wing robot named USTBird-I and its application in autonomous airdrop.Inspired by birds, a camber structure and a dihedral angle adjustment mechanism are introduced into the airfoil design and motion control of the wings, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics simulations and actual flight tests show that this bionic design can significantly improve the gliding performance of the robot, which is beneficial to the execution of the airdrop mission.Finally, a vision-based airdrop experiment has been successfully implemented on USTBird-I, which is the first demonstration of a bird-like flapping-wing robot conducting an outdoor airdrop mission.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.50905085,91116020)the Aviation Science Foundation of China(No.20100112005)
文摘A novel variable camber wing driven by ultrasonic motors is proposed.Key techniques of distributed layout of drive mechanisms,coordination control of distributed ultrasonic motors as well as novel flexible skin undergoing one-dimensional morphing are studied.The system integration of small variable camber wing is achieved.Distributed layout of parallelogram linkages driven by geared ultrasonic motors is adopted for morphing,aimed at reducing the load for each motor and producing various aerodynamic configurations suitable for different flying states.Programmable system-on-chip(PSoC)is used to realize the coordination control of the distributed ultrasonic motors.All the morphing driving systems are assembled in the interior of the wing.The wing surface is covered with a novel smooth flexible skin in order to maintain wing shape and decrease the aerodynamic drag during morphing.Wind tunnel test shows that the variable camber wing can realize morphing under low speed flight condition.Lift and drag characteristics and aerodynamic efficiency of the wing are improved.Appropriate configurations can be selected to satisfy aerodynamic requirements of different flight conditions.The study provides a practical application of piezoelectric precision driving technology in flow control.
文摘The knowledge of wing orientation and deformation during flapping flight is necessary for a complete aerodynamic analysis, but to date those kinematic features have not been simultaneously quantified for free-flying insects. A projected comb-fringe (PCF) method has been developed for measuring spanwise camber changes on free-flying dragonflies and on beating-flying dragonflies through the course of a wingbeat, which bases on projecting a fringe pattern over the whole measurement area and then measuring the wing deformation from the distorted fringe pattern. Experimental results demonstrate substantial camber changes both along the wingspan and through the course of a wingbeat. The ratio of camber deformation to chord length for hind wing is up to 0.11 at 75% spanwise with a flapping angle of -0.66 degree for a free-flying dragonfly.
基金supported by the National Research Project“Variable Camber Wing Technology(VCAN)”,China。
文摘Variable camber wing technology is one of the important development trends of green aviation at present.Through smooth,seamless,continuous and adaptive change of wing camber,the aerodynamic performance is improved in achieving increase in lift and reduction in resistance and noise.Based on the aerodynamic validation model CAE-AVM,Chinese Aeronautical Establishment(CAE)has carried out the design and validation of a variable camber wing,proposed an aerodynamic deformation matrix for the leading and trailing edges of aircraft wings in takeoff,landing and cruise conditions.Various structures and driving schemes are compared,and several key technology problems of leading and trailing edge deformation are solved.A full-size leading edge wind tunnel test piece with a span of 2.7 m and a trailing edge ground function test piece are developed.The deformation and shape maintenance capabilities of the leading edge is verified under real wind load conditions,and the load bearing and deformation capabilities of the trailing edge is verified under simulated follow-on load.The results indicate that the leading and trailing edges of the variable camber wing can achieve the required deformation angle and have a certain load-bearing capacity.Our study can provide some insights into the application of variable camber wing technology for civil aircraft.
