Design, takeoff and steering torques modulation of an 80-mg insect-scale flapping-wing robot

Chenyang Wang; Weiping Zhang; Jiaxin Zhao; Junqi Hu; Yang Zou

Design, takeoff and steering torques modulation of an 80-mg insect-scale flapping-wing robot

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Author(s): Chenyang Wang¹ ; Weiping Zhang¹ ; Jiaxin Zhao¹ ; Junqi Hu¹ ; Yang Zou¹
- Affiliations: 1: National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering , Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240 , People's Republic of China
Source: Volume 15, Issue 15, 30 December 2020, p. 1079 – 1083
DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2020.0371 , Online ISSN 1750-0443

Received 24/06/2020, Accepted 03/11/2020, Revised 22/09/2020, Published 30/12/2020

An 80-mg double piezo-actuated insect-inspired flapping-wing robot is presented in this Letter. With the design of the two piezoelectric actuators placed back to back, each wing of this robot is independently driven and controlled, giving this robot the ability to achieve asymmetric flapping of the two wings to generate torques for steering. The piezoelectric actuators are designed with electrical insulation and structural reinforcement to improve the reliability under high-voltage and high-frequency drive mode. Fibre directions of each component of the robot are reasonably designed to enhance strength and stiffness. The average lift generated by the robot is measured by a customised lift measurement system found to be proportional to the square of the input voltage amplitude. The three steering torques generated by the robot are measured separately by a customised lift measurement system. Each steering torque can only be linearly modulated by its specific control variable of the input voltages. With a total weight of 80 mg and a wingspan of 3.5 cm, this robot can generate sufficient lift to take off and independently modulate all three steering torques with good decoupling, which is vital for the further controlled flight.

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Design, takeoff and steering torques modulation of an 80-mg insect-scale flapping-wing robot

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