Longitudinal flight dynamic modeling and stability analysis of flapping-wing micro air vehicles

This paper investigates the longitudinal flight dynamics and stability of flapping-wing micro air vehicles. Periodic external forces and moments due to the flapping motion characterize the dynamics of this system as NLTP (Non Linear Time Periodic). However, the averaging theorem can be applied to an NLTP system to obtain an NLTI (Non Linear Time Invariant) system which allows us to use a standard eigen value analysis to assess the stability of the system with linearization around a reference point. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics and stability of a hawkmoth-scale flapping-wing air vehicle by establishing an LTI (Linear Time Invariant) system model around a hovering condition. Also, a direct time integration of full nonlinear equations of motion of the flapping-wing micro air vehicle is conducted to see how the longitudinal flight dynamics appear in the time domain beyond the reference point, i.e. hovering condition. In the study, the flapping-wing air vehicle exhibited three distinct dynamic modes of motion in the longitudinal plane of motion: two stable subsidence modes and one unstable oscillatory mode. The unstable oscillatory mode is found to be a combination of a pitching velocity state and a forward/backward velocity state. © ICROS 2015.