Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

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Dr Adel Stitou's Post-Doctoral work.

Aerodynamics of flapping wings in forward flight

Quantitative visualization of the flow pattern produced by a flapping wing is a proven and efficient tool to describe the phenomenon. Nevertheless, to get a complete insight, the measurement of the cyclical evolution in time of the aerodynamics forces is required. An ad- hoc force sensor is being developed in the laboratory because the needed specifications are so tight that usual commercial devices cannot cope with it. The typical loads range up to about 10grams of force and a dynamic range of 100 is the minimum required to get a decent accuracy. Size is also a critical issue since the sensor has to be integrated between the flapping actuators and the wings. The adopted design is based on a parallelogram that deforms under shear load. It aims at being sensitive to one force component at a time. Combining two of them allows a moment to be measured as well. The low load level imposes the use of semi-conductor transducers because of their higher sensitivity relative to classical strain guages. In this case, the bending arms of the sensor are made from this material.

Development of Micro Air Vehicles

The research in the field of Micro Air Vehicle has largely expanded these last years. Interest are presently showed mainly by the defense and security world but applications would certainly be founded in other fields from ?search and rescue? to planet exploration. The last cooperative effort has been initiated through the US-EURO MAV competition. Its purpose is to present a clear view of the state of the art technology and research effort in an emulative way.

A ready-to-fly prototype is currently being in development to take part of this international competition. The design is based on a two-flapping wing system. The targeted weight is 50g and the size would be about 15cm span.

The main drawback of a flapping flight vehicle is its natural instability. To overcome this issue, either one has to propose a different design that is stable by itself either to use smart systems to control it in time. The second approach has being adopted and is under investigation.

Last updated March 2005
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