ANALYSIS OF FLAPPING WING ROBOTS FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION. AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

Abstract

Comparing to usual flying mechanisms Flapped Wing flight is particularly interesting at low Reynolds regime, a situation where standard fixed wings and propellers have poor performances. The low density of some planetary atmospheres (e.g. Mars) often leads to such conditions. Flapping wing flight also uses the same surface for both propulsion and lift, allowing unprecedented manoeuvrability with vertical takeoff and landing capability. Recent developments in computational fluid dynamics and mechanical modelling of insect wings allowed researchers to understand key mechanisms of insect flight. In this study we use a dynamically scaled model of a hawkmoth wing to investigate the influence of a larger number of motion parameters on overall flight performance. A robotic arm attached to the wing allows motion in three rotational axes. All six forces/torques are measured at wing base and recorded. This setup provides a large parametric search space which cannot be exhaustively explored in feasible time, for that matter Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used.