• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.905-911
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• 2011

With the progress of micro actuator technology, studies on the development of micro air flapping wing vehicles are actively undergoing. In the present study, the changes of both lift and thrust characteristics of the wings are investigated using a boundary element method. Lift of the heaving wing is not generated when the wing is beating with smaller frequencies than 1 Hz. Thrust increases with amplitude and frequency. As the wing's taper and aspect ratios increase, both lift and thrust also increase. Results on the pitching oscillation and flapping motion will be included in the future work.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.826-831
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• 2004

Recently, studies have been carried out to develop unmanned Micro Air Vehicles(MAVs) that can search and monitor inside buildings during urban warfare or rescue operations in hazardous environments. However, existing fixed-wing and rotary-wing MAVs cannot travel at extremely low or high speeds, hover in place, or change directions instantly. This has lead researches to search for other flight methods that could overcome those drawbacks. Insect flight principles and its applications to MAVs are being studied as an alternative flight method. To take flight, insects flap and rotate their wings. These wing motions allow for high maneuverability flight such as hovering, vertical take off and landing, and quick acceleration and deceleration. This paper proposes a method for designing a mechanism that reproduces hovering insect flight, the basis for all other forms of insect flight. The design of a mechanism that can reproduce the motion that causes maximum lift is proposed, the required specifications are calculated, and a method for reproducing hovering insect flight with a single motor is presented. Also, feasibility of the design was confirmed by simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.1-8
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• 2002

The performance of MAV(Micro Air Vehicles) propellers is highly affected by the aerodynamic characteristics of a 2-D blade airfoil shapes. XFOIL is used to predict the lift and drag coefficients in low Reynolds Number flows. ARA-D 6%, which shows a good performance in low Reynolds Number regions, is selected as a blade airfoil. The 3-D propeller blade shape is optimized with the minimum energy loss condition, and the distribution of aerodynamic coefficients of ARA-D 6% is calculated. The designed optimal blade is compared with the Black Widow's propeller blade shape in the same conditions. The results indicate that the designed propeller installed in MAV can provide a good performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.311-314
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• 2007

Aerodynamic characteristics of an insect-type flapping wings were carried out to obtain the design parameters of Micro Hovering Air Vehicle. A pair of wing model was scaled up about 200 times and applied two pairs of 4-bar linkage mechanism to mimic the wing motion of a fruit fly(Drosophila). To verify the Weis-Fogh mechanism, a pair of wings revolved on the 'Delayed Rotation'. Lift and drag were measured in conditions of the Reynolds number based on wing tip velocity of about 1,200 and the maximum angle of attack of 40$40^{\circ}$. Inertia forces of a wing model were also measured by using a 99.98% vacuum chamber and subtracted on measured data in air. In the present study, high lift effect of Weis-Fogh mechanism was appeared in the middle of upstroke motion.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.765-772
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• 2015

Aerodynamic force measurements and phase-locked PIV study were carried out to check the bio-mimetic MAV applicability of a swift flight. Two-rotational DOF robotic wing model and blowing-type wind tunnel were employed. The amplitude of twist angle were ${\pm}0$, ${\pm}5$, ${\pm}10$, and ${\pm}20$ deg. and stroke angles were manipulated by simple harmonic function with out-of-phase in regards to the stroke motion. It is acknowledged that the time-varying lift coefficients in accordance with the change of the twist angle did not result in any noticeable differences, just the small decrease and delay. However, the drag exhibited that the small change of the twist angle can produce large thrust. These findings imply why a swift uses small twist angle during flight. The PIV results displayed that the delay of aerodynamic forces is highly associated with the vortical structures around the wing. It is therefore indicated that a process of designing a swift-based Micro Air Vehicle should take the twist angle into consideration, as the essential parameter.