Design and Simulation of Flapping Wing Mechanism with Spanwise Bending and Pitching

N. Sai Srinivas1, Ch. Naveen Reddy1, Dr. P Prasanna2

Post Graduate student1, Professor2
Department Of Mechanical Engineering
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad
Email: srinivas.think@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: Flapping wing aircrafts or ornithopters are class of vehicles which use different lift and thrust
generating mechanisms than fixed wing or rotary wing aircrafts. Research in the field of flapping wing air
vehicles is an ongoing quest to mimic the natural flight in birds and insects. Birds and insects have different
methods of producing lift and thrust for various modes of flight. Insects have very complicated wing tip paths
for hovering and forward flight while bird species have relatively simpler paths. The kinematics of a real bird
is also difficult to be mimicked because of extreme complexities involved and weight limitations of the
ornithopter. Most flapping wing fliers have been designed using mechanisms that generate active flapping
motion of wings whereas flexible membrane is used to achieve pitching motion. Bending of wings during the
reverse stroke is also an important phenomenon observed in large birds and not incorporated in most of the
designs. A mechanism has been designed to emulate the flapping motion of eagle which can provide flapping,
pitching and span-wise bending to the wings. Simulation of the mechanism is carried out in MSC ADAMS.
CAD model of the ornithopter has been developed to demonstrate the designed mechanism.
Keywords: Flapping wing mechanism, MAV, pitching, bending, design optimization and ornithopter.

Introduction
Research on mimicking insect and bird flight has been going on for few decades. Kinematics of bird flight is much
simpler compared to insect flight but it yet to be explored completely. Birds flap their wings to generate lift and
thrust as well as to perform remarkable maneuvers with rapid accelerations and decelerations. Understanding the
unsteady aerodynamics of insects, bats and birds is a challenge for researchers. Bird flapping motion can be divided
in to three parts i.e. plunging (pure flapping), pitching and span-wise bending. The phenomenon of span-wise
bending of wings during return stroke is observed in large birds. This works is focused on developing a mechanism
which can provide flapping, pitching and span-wise bending motion to the wings.
Flapping Flight in Birds
Generally, bird flight can be divided into two modes of functioning, i.e., unpowered flight (gliding and
soaring flight) and powered flight (flapping and hovering flight).When a bird is gliding, the wings are held out to the
side of the body and do not flap. Lift force is produced by the action of air flow on the wings. The lift force occurs
because the air has a lower pressure just above the wings and higher pressure below.
But there is also air resistance or drag on the body and wings of the bird. This force would eventually cause
the bird to slow down, up to the point where it would not have enough speed to fly. To make up for this, the bird can
lean forward a little and go into a shallow dive. In that way, the lift force produced by the wings is angled forward
slightly helping the bird to speed up.
. During flapping flight, the birds wings systematically change shape. Flapping involves up and down
movement of the wings. During the down stroke (or power stroke), the wings move downward and forward. During
the return stroke (or recovery stroke), the wings move upward and drawn in toward the body to reduce drag. During
flapping flight, the wings also changes their angle of attack depending on the stroke. Flapping flight is basically
rowing in the air with the added complication that lift needs to be generated as well.
Unpowered Flight: Gliding and Soaring

Flying animals usually flap their wings to generate both lift and thrust. But if they stop flapping and keep
their wings stretched out, their wings actively produce only lift, nor thrust. Thrust can be produced by gravity force
while the animal is descending. When this happens, we call them gliders. Many gliding birds (and soaring birds as
well) appear to hang in the air effortlessly, gaining height with barely a twitch of a wing. These are birds like
vultures, albatrosses, pelicans and storks with a high lift-to-drag ratio.
Their wings generate a lot of lift without producing much drag. Large birds have evolved to be gliders
partly because gliding becomes easier the larger your wings are and obviously small birds cannot have large wings.

Figure 1: A bird while gliding. Notice the separation between the wingtip feathers; these natural slots, help to
reduce the induced drag while gliding.
To maintain level flight, a flying animal must produce both lift and thrust to balance the gravity force in the
vertical direction and drag in the horizontal direction respectively. Because gliding occurs with no active thrust
production, an animal always resorts to the gravity force to overcome the drag. In gliding, the animal tilts its
direction of motion slightly downward relative to the air that it moves through. When the animal tilts downward, the
resulting angle between the motion direction and the air becomes the gliding angle. The gliding angle directly
controls the lift-to- rag ratio. The higher this ratio, the shallower the glide becomes.
The lift-to-drag ratio increases with the Reynolds number, a parameter proportional to animal size and
flight speed. Large flying animals fly at high Reynolds numbers and have a large lift-to-drag ratio. For example, a
wandering albatross, with a wing span of over 3 meters, has a reported lift-to-drag ratio of 19, whereas the fruit fly,
which has a span of 6 millimeters, has a lift-to-drag ratio of 1.8. If the animal has a low lift-to-drag ratio, it must
glide (if it can) with a considerably large glide angle. For example, the North American flying squirrel has a glide
angle of about 18 to 26 degrees with a lift-to-drag ratio of 2 to 3.
Powered Flight: Flapping
Flapping flight is more complicated than flight with fixed wings because of the structural movement and
the resulting unsteady fluid dynamics. Conventional airplanes with fixed wings are, in comparison, very simple. The
forward motion relative to the air causes the wings to produce lift. However, in flapping flight the wings not only
move forward relative to the air, they also flap up and down, bend, twist and sweep.
When a bird flaps, as opposed to gliding, its wings continue to develop lift as before, but they also create an
additional forward and upward force, thrust, to counteract its weight and drag. Flapping involves two stages: the
forward stroke or power stroke, which provides the majority of the thrust, and the return stroke or recovery stroke,
which can also (depending on the birds wings) provide some upward force. At each return stroke the wing is
slightly folded inwards to reduce upward resistance. Birds change the angle of attack between the return stroke and
the forward stroke of their wings. During the forward stroke the angle of attack is increased, and is decreased during

the return stroke. When the wings move up and down, they are also moving forward through the air along with the
rest of the bird.
During flapping flight, the inner wing gives lift whilst the hand section provides thrust (Freethy, 1982). The
inner part of a birds wing remains relatively stationary and acts as an aerofoil, producing lift and drag (Simkiss,
1963). On the backstroke, which is the power stroke, the primary feathers are linked together to produce a near
perfect aerofoil. Since the outer part of the wing is more mobile, it can be twisted so that the wing points into the
airstream; as with all airfoils, forces are generated and maximum thrust and minimum drag is obtained in addition to
lift. On the return stroke, the primary concern is to reduce drag. This is achieved through different mechanisms for
different species of birds. On the smaller birds, the primary feathers are separated, allowing air to pass through and
thus considerabl reducing drag (Freethy, 1982).
For the larger birds or small but long-winged birds, their wings are typically either flexed or partially closed on the
return stroke.
Mechanical Design Requirements
The mechanism has to provide all three motions of flapping with a single rotary input. After trying many
different configurations the flapping mechanism with six links has been designed as shown in the figure. The input
rotary motion is given to the link AB. Links. DF and CG are attached through link DB .FGH is a link plate, F and G
are revolute joints and H is fixed. Link DF is pin jointed to ground at E. In designing this mechanism, the most
important factors were weight, wing design, flapping frequency and flow velocity.

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of six link flapping mechanism where rotary motion is given to AB .

Weight Requirements
Due to the fact that this mechanism was to be used in a flapping wing aerial robot, it was necessary to be as
light weight as possible. Each component and sub-assembly was weighed and an effort was made to choose lightweight materials. The mechanism was built to emulate a larger bird in size, such as an eagle. The eagle was chosen
as a weight and size (wingspan) target. It was found that the weight of a eagle is approximately 1.5 to 1.75 pounds,
thus it was desirable that all of the parts combined did not weigh more than this. Parts such as motors, bearings and
joints constitute a significant amount of weight, so it was necessary to choose materials which had very low cost-toweight ratios.
Wingspan and Plan form Requirements
Larger birds and bats have wing semi-spans of approximately 18 inches. Since the mechanism had a target
weight to that of an eagle and a large crow, it was also desirable to have the same wing span as a large bat or eagle.
Since the wing was supposed to be a membrane wing, the largest natural flapper which employed this characteristic

is a bat, and therefore the wings were designed to be like those of a bat. This involved having structural members, or
battens, in the same places a real bat does as well as using a thin membrane. Structurally, the wing needed to be stiff
at the leading edge, while having a very flexible membrane.

Figure 3: A- Eagle with folding wings, B-Plan form of an eagle wing.

Flapping Frequency and Speed Requirements
Analysis of bird and insect flapping motions show that sustained forward flight can be produced by
different flapping motions, and that the motion appropriate for one vehicle or one wing might not be the best for
another wing or vehicle. Eagles have a flapping frequency of approximately 4 Hz or wing-beats per second. This
meant that the target flapping frequency for the flapping mechanism had to be at least 4 Hz, with the possibility at
flapping at a higher frequency being desirable. It was decided to flap the mechanism at 2, 3 and 4 Hz, at various free
stream velocities. 10 Hz was arbitrarily chosen as an upper bound in frequency when selecting a motor.
Realistically, large natural flappers do not flap at frequencies as high as 10 Hz.Table 3.1 lists the desired design
requirements for the flapping mechanism.
Table 1: Target Design Requirements
Desired Weight:
Desired Wing Semi-Span:
Desired Flapping Frequency:
Air Velocities:

1.75 lbs.
18 in.
0 f4 Hz
0,5,10 m/s

Mechanism Simulation USING MSC ADAMS

ADAMS is Automatic dynamic analysis of mechanical systems. ADAMS/VIEW allows users to build, simulate
and examine results in a single environment. Now we use basic Adams/View environment to build the model and
examine the dynamic behavior of the proposed Flapping models. Models can be designed in other modeling
packages, it has a possibility of 3D model import from Standard Modelling software. Adams can be integrated with
MATLAB/EASY5 computing packages for better results. We can even build a solid model of a mechanical system
from scratch in Adams/View environment. A full library of joints and constraints is available for creating articulated
mechanisms. Once the model is complete, Adams checks the model and then runs simultaneous equations for
kinematic, static, quasi-static, and dynamic simulations. Results are viewable as graph, data plots, reports or colorful
animations that we easily can share with others. The advantage of ADAMS vs. for example MATLAB is that
mechanical dynamical systems are described geometrically. Adams involves direct physics and so it represents

actual physical behavior of any model thus save us the time and cost for building any prototypes before making the
actual model. The geometry can be efficiently parameterized allowing the user to easily see the effect of changes
Adams Models Description
Semi span of the wing is considered for the analysis since motion is symmetric about the central axis and wing is
represented with links. A screenshot of the model in MSC ADAMS is shown wherein the input motion revolute
joints and the fixed joints can be seen.

Figure 4: Model simulated in MSC ADAMS with all constraints.

The mechanism was simulated at various frequencies and with different link lengths. The motion of the
wing during forward and return stroke is different. During forward stroke, which starts from the top most position
the wing is initially in a flexed position stretches completely out and flaps with maximum san by the time it reaches
bottom most position. While returning i.e. during return stroke which starts with completely stretched out position
and gradually flexes inside and the span is reduced .Variation during the forward and return stroke can be observed
in the figure shown.

Figure 5: Flapping mechanism with forward and return stroke positions

Figure 6: Paths followed by markers at tips of the first part and second apart of the wing in their top and bottom
postions.
Path followed by the tips of inner and outer wing parts are shown in the figure. The path followed by inner
part of the wing is same during forward and return stroke while the outer part follows a different path during
forward and return stroke, which represents the flexing of wing during return stroke. During the return stroke due to
the flexing of the wing (bending) the tip is much closer to the body.
Pitching motion for the outer part of the wing be achived by two ways either using a flexible membrane wing or by
pivoting the rigid wing at the right point to the link. Wing changes its pitch during forward and return strokes due to
the changes in aerodynamic forces and can be adjusted properly and syncked with flapping motion.

4.2 CAD Model of the Flapping wing Ornithopter

A CAD model of the Ornithopter has been developed which demonstrates the proposed flapping wing
mechanism using SolidWorks 2013 modelling software. An isometric conceptual view of the flapping mechanism
can be seen in Figure 4.1. This figure also depicts the relative scale between the flapping mechanism and the wings

Figure 7: Isometric View of the Ornithopter (CAD Model)

The design is based for a remote controlled flying model hence weight of components is an important consideration.
Total weight of the ornithopter which includes the weight of the mechanism, fuselage, control actuators, motor,
battery and the electronics should be within the limit.
A Brushless DC motor will be used to power the mechanism which is connected through a set of gears to reduce the
speed and obtain the required torque. The output shaft of the motor is connected to a pinion gear, which was
connected to a main gear. The main gear acts as a crank which revolves 360 o.

Figure
Figure 8: Front View of Flapping Mechanism (CAD Model)
A hollow Square tube is used for fuselage spar to which the mechanism frame and all other components are
mounted. The mechanism is mounted on a frame which holds all links in relative positions.
Light Weight Carbon tubes are used for all links and main spar to minimize the weight and for high strength.
Aluminum strips are used for mechanism frame and joint plate as shown in figure 4.3.
Conclusion
Flapping wing mechanism with span wise bending inspired by an eagle has been developed. The proposed
mechanism has been used and a CAD model of the ornithopter has been developed. Equations of motion for
mechanism have been formulated using Body-Coordinate method. Kinematic and Dynamic analysis has been
performed using MSC ADAMS at different frequencies of flapping and relative velocities, accelerations and force
values have been presented.
Future work

To study the aerodynamics of the flapping wing mechanism designed.

Build the physical model of the Ornithopter and test the above results obtained.
Develop a mechanism which can exhibit both span-wise bending and variable pitching during a flapping
cycle

References:
[1] Chapter 2, Aerodynamics of Flapping Flight
[2] Design of a Six-link Mechanism for a Micro Air Vehicle, S. Mukherjee and S. Sanghi

[3]A Review of Bird-Inspired Flapping Wing Miniature Air Vehicle Designs by John W. Gerdes,
Satyandra K. Gupta
[4] Effect of Different Design Parameters On Lift, Thrust and Drag of an Ornithopter
M Afzaal Malik, Farooq Ahmad
[5] Modeling and Simulation of Kinematics for an Active Flapping and Pitching Mechanism, Afzaal M.
Malik, M. Saif Ullah Khalid, Fahim Barlas
[6] The Development Of A Miniature Flexible Flapping Wing Mechanism For Use In A Robotic Air
Vehicle, A Thesis Presented to The Academic Faculty by Gautam Jadhav
[7] Development of Air Vehicle with Active Flapping and Twisting of Wing
Sangyol Yoon1, Lae-Hyong Kang2, Sungho Jo
[8] Numerical and Experimental Analysis Of Flapping Wing Motion A Thesis Submitted To The
Graduate School Of Natural And Applied Sciences Of Middle East Technical University By Ebru Sarigl
[9] Lift Force Control of a Flapping-Wing Microrobot Nestor O. Perez-Arancibia, John P. Whitney and
Robert J. Wood