Motion Study of the Ornithopter with Periodic Wing Oscillations

Abstract

The motion of an ornithopter, a flying robot, consisting of a body and two symmetric twolink wings, is considered. The device moves in a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the robot. All the links of the object form a chain through cylindrical joints with parallel axes. A mathematical model of the ornithopter is developed based on a bird’s flight analysis taking into account the aerodynamic interaction of all the links with the environment. Sequences of flight phases are considered, each of which differs in the direction of motion of the wing links. As a result of numerical simulation, diagrams of the robot’s modes of motion are constructed (ascent, hovering, and descent) and the effect of the amplitude and frequency of oscillation of the wing links, as well as their area, is determined (the same wing area was achieved by varying the length and width of the wings).