The Development of Elastodynamic Components for Piezoelectrically Actuated Flapping Micro-Air Vehicles

This paper describes the development of skeletal mechanisms and wings for the electromechanical emulation of mesoscale flapping flight. Specifically, three piezoelectrically actuated flexure-based mechanisms are described that transform the linear output of piezoelectric unimorph actuators into single-degree-of-freedom flapping motion, and experimental results are described that characterize their performance. Additionally, efforts in the development of aeroelastically tailored wings are described, and data is presented that characterizes how the ratio of bending to torsional natural frequencies of the wing influences wing lift and efficiency.