Development and Testing of the Mentor Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle

TLDR

In 1997 DARPA launched a program to develop micro air vehicles for portable surveillance, prompting contractors to explore fixed‑wing, rotary‑wing, and ornithopter designs. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a flapping‑wing micro air vehicle that employs the clap‑fling mechanism to generate lift. The vehicle uses a dual‑wing mechanical system that mimics hummingbird flight, with a drive train converting high‑rpm rotary motion to flapping and a programmable logic board for stabilization, and was built in both internal‑combustion and electric‑motor variants. Both variants achieved successful hovering flight, and preliminary experiments demonstrated the ability to transition to horizontal flight.

Abstract

In 1997 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated a program to explore the possibility of micro air vehicles for the purpose of individually portable surveillance systems for close-range operations. The various contractors approached the problem in several ways, such as developing tiny fixed-wing airplanes, rotary-wing aircraft, and ornithopters mimicking animal flight This paper describes one such flapping-wing aircraft, which drew upon the clap-fling phenomenon that is exploited by many flying animals and insects for lift generation. Essentially this aircraft was a mechanical simulation of hummingbird flight, though with two sets of wings to eliminate the unbalanced side-to-side flapping forces. Two flying demonstration models were built, one with an internal-combustion engine and another with an electric motor. In both cases, these incorporated a drive train to reduce the high rpm rotary shaft motion to lower-frequency oscillation for flapping. Also required was a programmable logic board for stabilization. Successful hovering flight was achieved with both models, and initial studies of transition to horizontal flight were also explored.