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Abstract
Flapping wing propulsion has the potential to revolutionise the field of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs), but little is known about the effect of flapping motion on the performance of flapping wings. Prototype MAVs have achieved flight with passive flapping wings moving in a sinusoidal flapping motion, but the possible benefits of alternative flapping motions have not been studied in detail.
This thesis presents the development of an Integrated Testing System (ITS), which allows the evaluation of flapping wing performance for different flapping motions. A detailed parametric study of the effect of flapping motion on wing performance is performed, and the optimal flapping motion for several passive flapping wings is determined by hardware-in-the-loop optimisation of two wing performance metrics.
The developed ITS was able to automatically test a variety of passive flapping wings, and demonstrated precise control of the flapping motion and accurate and repeatable measurements of average lift force, mechanical power, and wing twist angle. The parametric study revealed that of the three flapping motions tested, the sinusoidal flapping motion generated the highest lift force, but a smoothed triangular motion was able to generate lift significantly more efficiently under load. The optimal flapping motion was successfully determined for three flapping wings, and was found to increase the loaded efficiency of the wings by an average of 31% over a sinusoidal flapping motion. The determined optimal motion was almost identical for the three tested wings, and was found to strongly resemble the flapping motion of insects
These findings demonstrate that significant improvements in the performance of passive flapping wings can be achieved by relatively minor variations of the flapping motion. This increased understanding will ideally lead to more efficient flapping wing MAVs with higher payloads, longer flight times, and improved performance.