Design, Fabrication, and Testing of an Insect-Sized MAV Wing Flapping Mechanism

摘要

Flapping Wing Micro Air Vechicles have been proposed for their ability to operate in confined spaces such as inside buildings. Numerous designs have been proposed for bird-sized flapping wing MAVs, but few for insect-sized vehicles. The smaller scale of insect-sized vehicles require different design and fabrication approaches. Here, a 7 cm wingspan design is presented that uses bimorph piezoelectric cantilever actuators amplified through a four-bar linkage to flap the MAV wings through a wing stroke angle of ±55°. Novel methods for micro-fabrication are described that enable the repeatable assembly of such small structures. Finally, the mechanism is tested with a laser vibrometer, and the experimental results are presented showing that the fabricated MAV prototype behaves as designed.