Flapping wing air vehicles offer many useful flight characteristics due to their versatility, as proven by flying animals. Wing design significantly influences the performance. However designing successful wings presents significant challenges. Efficient matching of the drive motors to the flapping wings is necessary to overcome the highly constrained weight budget. Simulating detailed information about the force response due to flapping is challenging due to complex fluid-structural interactions of the wings resulting in non-linear force response to flapping motion. To overcome this challenge, we conducted an experimental study of flapping wings to provide detailed temporal force response data for flapping wings. A prototype was built by synthesizing lightweight manufacturing techniques with the results of the experimental study. Our experimental investigations enabled us to select the flapping angle range and flapping frequency.
Skip Nav Destination
ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
August 4–7, 2013
Portland, Oregon, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Design Engineering Division
- Computers and Information in Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5594-2
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Wing Performance Characterization for Flapping Wing Air Vehicles
John W. Gerdes,
John W. Gerdes
US Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Luke Roberts,
Luke Roberts
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Eli Barnett,
Eli Barnett
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Johannes Kempny,
Johannes Kempny
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Ariel Perez-Rosado,
Ariel Perez-Rosado
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Hugh A. Bruck,
Hugh A. Bruck
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Satyandra K. Gupta
Satyandra K. Gupta
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
John W. Gerdes
US Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
Luke Roberts
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Eli Barnett
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Johannes Kempny
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Ariel Perez-Rosado
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Hugh A. Bruck
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Satyandra K. Gupta
University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Paper No:
DETC2013-12479, V06BT07A004; 10 pages
Published Online:
February 12, 2014
Citation
Gerdes, JW, Roberts, L, Barnett, E, Kempny, J, Perez-Rosado, A, Bruck, HA, & Gupta, SK. "Wing Performance Characterization for Flapping Wing Air Vehicles." Proceedings of the ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 6B: 37th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference. Portland, Oregon, USA. August 4–7, 2013. V06BT07A004. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2013-12479
Download citation file:
48
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Articles
Integrated Product and Process Design for a Flapping Wing Drive Mechanism
J. Mech. Des (June,2009)
Discussion of “A Review of Propulsion, Power, and Control Architectures for Insect-Scale Flapping Wing Vehicles” by E. F. Helbling and R. J. Wood (Helbling, E. F., and Wood, R. J., 2018, ASME Appl. Mech. Rev., 70(1), p. 010801)
Appl. Mech. Rev (January,2018)
Design and Development of Scissorbot: A Novel Mid-Flight-Span-Reducing Quadcopter
J. Mechanisms Robotics (June,2025)
Related Chapters
Introduction and Definitions
Handbook on Stiffness & Damping in Mechanical Design
Introduction
Axial-Flow Compressors
Physiology of Human Power Generation
Design of Human Powered Vehicles