Experimental optimization of wing lift for a hummingbird-like micro flapping-wing robot

Abstract

Inspired by natural flapping wing creatures, such as hummingbird, micro flapping-wing robot has a broad application prospect due to their advantages of light weight and high flexibility. Lift is the key to its performance. However, as the mechanism by which real wings generate lift is not completely clear, artificial wings do not perform as well as real wings. In this paper, a hummbrid-like robot is designed, and a comprehensive experimental method is adopted to analyze the influence of wing shape, size and stiffness on lift. The results indicate that the optimal airfoil is pentagon, with wing area of 2050 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and an aspect ratio of 9.3, and the lift is improved by 24.7% compared with that before optimization. Finally, the performance of the wing was demonstrated by a 14.6 g flapping wing robot flying test.