Control of Flight Altitude of a Small Flapping Robot by Wing Flapping Frequencies

The purpose of this paper is clarifying the effect of wing motion for the flight of small flying robot without having tail wing. Specifically, we measured the body angle and flight velocity of flying small flying robot at different flapping frequency in range from 7.5 [Hz] to 10.5 [Hz], and clarified the effect of body angle for flight velocity in flights as flapping frequency changes. The small flying robot has large body angle in flight at high flapping frequency. The spatial vertical velocity increases because the body angle increases linearly despite of little change of flight velocity from viewpoint of robot as increasing flapping frequency. Moreover, for this flying robot, flying at larger body angle than body angle of 16 [deg.] is necessary condition for increasing spatial vertical velocity as flapping frequency changes. It indicates that the flight altitude of micro flapping robot is controllable by its flapping frequency.