A blade element approach to modeling aerodynamic flight of an insect-scale robot

Abstract

Recent manufacturing advances have allowed for the creation of gram and sub-gram insect-scale flapping robots. Most dynamic models of such robots to date have either assumed stroke-averaged forces or did not account for body motion. In order to design more robust and capable control methods, this paper incorporates blade element theory with a rigid-body dynamic model to calculate instantaneous aerodynamic forces during each wing stroke. As a result, the model accurately predicts body motions during flight.