Design of Hybrid Passive and Active Mechanisms for Control of Insect-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots

Abstract

Flying insects exhibit a remarkable ability to fly in environments that are small, cluttered and highly dynamic. Inspired by these animals, scientist have made great strides in understanding the aerodynamic mechanisms behind insect-scale flapping-wing flight. By applying these mechanisms together with recent advances in meso-scale fabrication techniques, engineers built an insect-scale flapping-wing robot and demonstrated hover by actively controlling the robot about its roll and pitch axes. The robot, however, lacked control over its yaw axis preventing control over its heading angle.\n\nIn this thesis, we show that the roll and pitch axes of a single actuator insect-scale flapping-wing robot can also be passively stabilized by the addition of a pair of aerodynamic dampers. We develop design guidelines for these dampers, showing that the previously unstable robot with the addition of the dampers is able to perform stable vertical flights and altitude control. To address the lack of yaw control, we develop a yaw torque generating mechanism inspired by the fruit fly wing hinge. We present the development of this mechanism in three stages: from the conceptual stage, to the torque measurement stage and finally to a hover capable stage. We show that the robot is able to generate sufficient yaw torque enabling the robot to transition from hover to heading control maneuvers.