Flight Dynamics and Aeroelasticity of Flapping Wing MAVs

The target of this research is to develop coupled aeroelastic and flight dynamic solutions for understanding and predicting the behavior of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) in unsteady flows at low Reynolds numbers. Different aerodynamic formulations, including a discrete vortex method and a surrogate aerodynamic model, have been prototyped. Interactions among the wing structural elasticity, aerodynamics, flight dynamics, and wing flapping kinematic have been explored.

Shown below is a sample movie of a flapping-wing vehicle turning with asymmetric wing flapping excitations. Note that the simulation is open-loop. A close-loop control system for it is under development.