Bionic design and scaling laws for flapping-wing MAVs

Some valuable principles for the configuration of flapping-wing Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) were presented by assessing the effects of different parameters, such as wing area and wing span aspect ratio, on the flight characteristics of flapping flight animals. Based on the assumption of geometric similarity among birds, the relations between different physical quantities such as wing span, wing area, wing loading, aspect ratio and wing beat frequency, were summarized via the dimensional arguments. Then the scaling laws for the MAVs with flapping wings were induced. In the foundation of the scaling laws, a bionic design method for flapping-wing MAVs was studied. Finally a lightweight flapping wing MAV was build and has been demonstrated successfully free flights with flight duration ranges from 10 s to 21 s. The modeling and analysis method, as well as the conclusions are suitable for design and analysis of flapping-wing MAVs.