Development and performance evaluation of the flapping wing with In-situ piezoceramic actuator

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PhD; 2023; Centre for nano science and engineering

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are essentially automatic flight vehicles having dimensions, wingspan and airspeed, smaller than the conventional aerial vehicles. UAVs are employed widely in applications such as surveillance over a short distance, acquisition of a local target, detection of hazardous chemicals / biological agent, exploration of a harmful environment, search operations, etc. UAV can be classified into three main types depending on their method of propulsion and lift. These are fixed wing, rotary wing, and flapping wing. Flapping wing UAVs are more suitable for insect scale flights. Flapping mechanism requires actuators with large stroke periodic (reciprocal) motion at high speed (10-100s of Hz) with large output forces for overcoming the aerodynamic damping. There are several actuation mechanisms applicable to flapping-wing UAVs. The emphasis is on linear actuators, which simplify the mechanical transmission for flapping motions. Most of the prototypes developed so far have employed motor-driven mechanisms to achieve the flapping wing. Unconventional methods such as piezoelectric, thermal, electromagnetic, shape memory, electrostatic, etc. for actuation of flapping wings have also been used.