Experimental Study on Dynamic Modeling of Flapping Wing Micro Aerial Vehicle

Flapping-wing Micro Aerial Vehicle (FWMAV) is a kind of aircraft which can produce lift and thrust by flapping the wings just like birds or insects. Wind tunnel experiment played an important role in the Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) research. This paper introduces wind tunnel experiments of a pair of flexible flapping wings, and analyzes mean and instantaneous characteristics of aerodynamic force and torque. According to the characters of force and torque, they are divided into average signals and periodic alternating signals. Average signals are related to motion characteristics of aircraft, like fixed wing aerial vehicle. Meanwhile, periodic alternating signals are related to periodic flapping up and down, and the frequency is the same as flapping frequency. Finally, the article establishes an available longitudinal flight dynamic model of FWMAV using small perturbation theory to deal with average signals and the model was verified by the real flight tests.