Pitch and Roll Control Mechanism for a Hovering Flapping Wing MAV

Abstract

Hovering flapping flight is inherently unstable and needs to be stabilized actively. We present a control mechanism that modulates independently the wing flapping amplitude and offset by displacing joints of a flapping linkage mechanism. We demonstrate its performance by high speed camera recordings of the wing motion as well as by direct measurements of pitch moment and lift force. While flapping at 17 Hz the prototype produces 90 mN of lift and generates pitch moments from −0.7 N.mm to 1.1 N.mm. The mechanism shows low level of cross-coupling in combined pitch and roll commands.