Design development and aerodynamic analysis of an ornithopter

Abstract

In recent years the theme of flying vehicles propelled by flapping wings, often known as ornithopters, has attracted researchers because of its various applications in surveillance, monitoring and transport. Even with state-of-the-art FAVs (Flapping Aerial Vehicles), we are far away from achieving control and manoeuvrability of real insects and birds. Understanding the aerodynamics of flapping flight and structural patterns of birds’ wings is essential for developing robust and high performance flapping-wing aerial robots. The objective for this project is to design an ornithopter from scratch. Complete development procedure is described in the report so that the final product can be replicated easily. The development process includes analysis and evaluation of flapping mechanisms, theoretical model of flapping flight and prototype design. Forces and moments due to some critical unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms as well as static and dynamic stability of aircraft are studied to derive the vehicle's equations of motion under the symmetric flapping assumption. The aerodynamic model should accommodate most types of flapping mechanisms encountered in literature with slight modification in the code. The Ornithopter's design focuses on increasing its kinematic similarity to an actual bird by evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of several flapping mechanisms. For this purpose, makeshift prototypes were made. The overall evaluation of the mechanism is based on ease of manufacturing, compactness, its bilateral symmetry, and kinematics involved with it. Keywords: Ornithopter, Flapping Flight, Mechanical Design, Aerodynamics