Design and Analysis of Naturally Inspired Micro-UAV

Abstract

Man has always been fascinated by the phenomenon of flight and has looked up to the skies to imagine things. Over the years, humans have made many attempts to replicate the flight patterns of birds and insects but failed. With the advent of commercial airplanes and space crafts our knowledge of aerodynamic flight has exponentially grown. The newest trend is nothing but a return to old fascination of man. In the past 20 or so years, the huge amount of investment and research has gone into flapping wing ornithopters. This project is just a step in that long chain. Following in the footsteps of our predecessors and learning from them we also presented a possible solution for the replicating flight of dragonflies. Dragonflies are truly unparalleled in their ability of fly in the air. They can hover as good as a helicopter and fly with great maneuverability like a fighter jet. This makes them a great candidate for mimicking. In this project, we have taken a layered approach, each layer guiding the results of its predecessors. The CFD results ensure that aerodynamic forces lie in the prescribed limits, mechanism design enables it to operate in that range.