"Flapping wing vehicles (FWVs) have unique flight characteristics and the successful flight of such a vehicle depends upon efficient design of the flapping mechanisms while keeping the minimum weight of the structure. Flapping Wing Vehicles: Numerical and Experimental Approach discusses design and kinematic analysis of various flapping wing mechanisms, measurement of flap angle/flapping frequency, and computational fluid dynamic analysis of motion characteristics including manufacturing techniques. The book also includes wind tunnel experiments, high-speed photographic analysis of aerodynamic performance, soap film visualization of 3D down washing, studies on the effect of wing rotation, figure-of-eight motion characteristics, and more. Features: Covers all aspects of FWVs needed to design one and understand how and why it flies; Explains related engineering practices including flapping mechanism design, kinematic analysis, materials, manufacturing, and aerodynamic performance measures using wind tunnel experiments; Includes CFD analysis of 3D wing profile, formation flight of FWVs, and soap film visualization of flapping wings; Discusses dynamics and image-based control of a group of ornithopters; Explores indigenous PCB design for achieving altitude and attitude control This book is aimed at researchers and graduate students in mechatronics, materials, aerodynamics, robotics, biomimetics, vehicle design and MAV/UAV."--

This title reports on the latest research in the area of aerodynamic efficency of various fixed-wing, flapping wing, and rotary wing concepts. It presents the progress made by over fifty active researchers in the field.

For anyone interested in the aerodynamics, structural dynamics and flight dynamics of small birds, bats, insects and air vehicles (MAVs).

This book introduces the topics most relevant to autonomously flying flapping wing robots: flapping-wing design, aerodynamics, and artificial intelligence. Readers can explore these topics in the context of the "Delfly", a flapping wing robot designed at Delft University in The Netherlands. How are tiny fruit flies able to lift their weight, avoid obstacles and predators, and find food or shelter? The first step in emulating this is the creation of a micro flapping wing robot that flies by itself. The challenges are considerable: the design and aerodynamics of flapping wings are still active areas of scientific research, whilst artificial intelligence is subject to extreme limitations deriving from the few sensors and minimal processing onboard. This book conveys the essential insights that lie behind success such as the DelFly Micro and the DelFly Explorer. The DelFly Micro, with its 3.07 grams and 10 cm wing span, is still the smallest flapping wing MAV in the world carrying a camera, whilst the DelFly Explorer is the world's first flapping wing MAV that is able to fly completely autonomously in unknown environments. The DelFly project started in 2005 and ever since has served as inspiration, not only to many scientific flapping wing studies, but also the design of flapping wing toys. The combination of introductions to relevant fields, practical insights and scientific experiments from the DelFly project make this book a must-read for all flapping wing enthusiasts, be they students, researchers, or engineers.

Flapping wing vehicles (FWVs) have unique flight characteristics and the successful flight of such a vehicle depends upon efficient design of the flapping mechanisms while keeping the minimum weight of the structure. Flapping Wing Vehicles: Numerical and Experimental Approach discusses design and kinematic analysis of various flapping wing mechanisms, measurement of flap angle/flapping frequency, and computational fluid dynamic analysis of motion characteristics including manufacturing techniques. The book also includes wind tunnel experiments, high-speed photographic analysis of aerodynamic performance, soap film visualization of 3D down washing, studies on the effect of wing rotation, figure-of-eight motion characteristics, and more. Features Covers all aspects of FWVs needed to design one and understand how and why it flies Explains related engineering practices including flapping mechanism design, kinematic analysis, materials, manufacturing, and aerodynamic performance measures using wind tunnel experiments Includes CFD analysis of 3D wing profile, formation flight of FWVs, and soap film visualization of flapping wings Discusses dynamics and image-based control of a group of ornithopters Explores indigenous PCB design for achieving altitude and attitude control This book is aimed at researchers and graduate students in mechatronics, materials, aerodynamics, robotics, biomimetics, vehicle design and MAV/UAV.

This book presents the most recent research advances in the theory, design, control and application of robotic systems, which are intended for a variety of purposes such as manipulation, manufacturing, automation, surgery, locomotion and biomechanics.

Flying insects are intelligent micromachines capable of exquisite maneuvers in unpredictable environments. Understanding these systems advances our knowledge of flight control, sensor suites, and unsteady aerodynamics, which is of crucial interest to engineers developing intelligent flying robots or micro air vehicles (MAVs). The insights we gain when synthesizing bioinspired systems can in turn benefit the fields of neurophysiology, ethology and zoology by providing real-life tests of the proposed models. This book was written by biologists and engineers leading the research in this crossdisciplinary field. It examines all aspects of the mechanics, technology and intelligence of insects and insectoids. After introductory-level overviews of flight control in insects, dedicated chapters focus on the development of autonomous flying systems using biological principles to sense their surroundings and autonomously navigate. A significant part of the book is dedicated to the mechanics and control of flapping wings both in insects and artificial systems. Finally hybrid locomotion, energy harvesting and manufacturing of small flying robots are covered. A particular feature of the book is the depth on realization topics such as control engineering, electronics, mechanics, optics, robotics and manufacturing. This book will be of interest to academic and industrial researchers engaged with theory and engineering in the domains of aerial robotics, artificial intelligence, and entomology.

Low Reynolds number aerodynamics is important to a number of natural and man-made flyers. Birds, bats, and insects have been of interest to biologists for years, and active study in the aerospace engineering community, motivated by interest in micro air vehicles (MAVs), has been increasing rapidly. The primary focus of this book is the aerodynamics associated with fixed and flapping wings. The book consider both biological flyers and MAVs, including a summary of the scaling laws-which relate the aerodynamics and flight characteristics to a flyer's sizing on the basis of simple geometric and dynamics analyses, structural flexibility, laminar-turbulent transition, airfoil shapes, and unsteady flapping wing aerodynamics. The interplay between flapping kinematics and key dimensionless parameters such as the Reynolds number, Strouhal number, and reduced frequency is highlighted. The various unsteady lift enhancement mechanisms are also addressed, including leading-edge vortex, rapid pitch-up and rotational circulation, wake capture, and clap-and-fling.

Insect-scale flapping wing flight vehicles can conduct environmental monitoring, disaster assessment, mapping, positioning and security in complex and challenging surroundings. To develop bio-inspired flight vehicles, systematic probing based on the particular category of flight vehicles is needed. This Element addresses the aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, geometry, stability and dynamics of flexible flapping wings in the insect flight regime. The authors highlight distinct features and issues, contrast aerodynamic stability between rigid and flexible wings, present the implications of the wing-aspect ratio, and use canonical models and dragonflies to elucidate scientific insight as well as technical capabilities of bio-inspired design.

This volume LNCS 12557 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2020, held in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2020. The 24 papers presented in the two volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 39 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections named: optimization algorithms; neurodynamics, complex systems, and chaos; supervised/unsupervised/reinforcement learning/deep learning; models, methods and algorithms; and signal, image and video processing.