Ornithopter

Introduction
An Ornithopter (from Greek ornithos "bird" and pteron "wing") is an aircraft that flies by
flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though
machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. An
ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Inspired by nature, we intend to make a remote
controlled ornithopter as our project. This is the beginning of a new era in flapping-wing flight. In the
past, we used a motor and gears to drive the flapping of the wings. The wings had a set range of motion,
and we could only control the speed. Now, with a totally new paradigm, we can exactly control the
movement of each wing, using a powerful actuator that is linked to an onboard computer. This system
mimics the muscles and brain of a real bird.

Block Diagram
Project Requirements
Fuselage:
1. Coroplast
2. Carbon fiber
Gearbox:
1. Mild steel gears
2. Iron rods (axle)
3. Ball bearings
4. Brushless motor-1400kv
Electronics:
1. ESC-electronic speed controller- 10amp
2. battery-li-polymer-3s 11.1V 350mah
3. RC transmitter
4. RC receiver
5.1400 kV brushless motor
6. Servos
7. Camera
Wings, tail and other control:
1. Carbon fiber
2. Servos
3. plastic-poly ethane
4. Glue, tape, rubber bands
5. Coroplast material
6. Linkages, tape, nylon thread, hooks, prop rings, crank shaft
DESIGN AND MAIN PARTS:

Gear Box

The most critical part of the ornithopter is the drive mechanism the converts the Electric
power from the battery to the aping motion of the wings. This system is the most complex to
design and fabricate because it must withstand very large forces which reverse direction
several times a second while at the same time being extremely light and durable. Because of
the loads it must be made from metal which makes it beneficial to perform careful analysis
and trim as much weight as possible. A gear or more correctly a "gear wheel" is a rotating
machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part in order to
transmit torque. Two or more gears working in tandem are called a transmission and can
produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple
machine. Geared devices can change the speed, magnitude, and direction of a power source.
The most common situation is for a gear to mesh with another gear, however a gear can also
mesh a non-rotating toothed part, called a rack, thereby producing translation instead of
rotation.
Main Body

Body Frame It is made of coroplast and a carbon fiber of 3 mm diameter in the form of a
rectangular shape. There are two directions to go with the frame design, either a single at
plate which relies on its own thickness for stiffness, or a three dimensional design made from
much thinner material that gets its stiffness from the truss-like structure. In order to minimize
the weight of our aircraft Styrofoam has been used and appropriate sized gaps have been
made for placing the battery, ESC and receiver and then stuck in the gap of body frame and
we also made the separate compartment for fitting servos which are used to assign the
directions to the ornithopter. A proper mount is attached in front of the body frame for the
motor and gear box. The one major specification that must be paid attention to is the location
of the center of gravity.
WINGS

In order to create an effective ornithopter, it had to be able to flap its wings to generate
enough power to get off the ground and travel through the air. A main spar runs along the
leading edge of the wing and a strut connects from the rear of the ornithopter's body to a
point near the tip of the main spar. From this strut there are several smaller carbon rods that
project to the edge of the wing which are somewhat free to move. This result in a fanning
motion from the trailing edge of the wing that produces thrust while the leading edge is
flapping up and down which directly contributes a part of the lift in addition to the
conventional lift coming from airflow over the wing. The wings have a triangular support
structure made from carbon rods. Efficient flapping of the wing is characterized by pitching
angles, lagging plunging displacements by approximately 90 degrees. Flapping wings
increase drag and are not as efficient as propeller-powered aircraft. To increase efficiency of
the ornithopter, more power is required on the down stroke than on the upstroke. If the wing
on the ornithopter was not flexible and flapped at the same angle while moving up and down,
it would act like a huge board moving in two dimensions, not producing lift or thrust. The
flexibility and move-ability of the wing let it twist and bend to the reactions of the ornithopter
while in flight.
Tail Part

The tail is a V shaped tail with an angle of 120 degrees. It is made of carbon fiber . Plastic
cover has been used to cover it and tightened by a blower. Two servos are mounted on the
body frame to move the rudders attached to the tail which are used to change the direction
and pitch of the ornithopter. We keep rudders in different ways to change the direction-
 If both the rudders are in upward direction then Ornithopter deflects downward.
 If both the rudders are in downward direction then Ornithopter deflects upward.
 If rightward is in upward direction and leftward is in downward direction then
Ornithopter deflects leftward.
 If rightward is in downward direction and leftward is in upward direction then
Ornithopter deflects rightward.
WORKING PRINCIPLE OF FLAPPING WING

On a stretched flapping wing lift is generated similar to an inflexible airfoil flown against
from the front.
But during the wing upstroke the air flow hits the wing rather from above and in the down
stroke rather from bottom. These modifications are small in the area of the wing root and gets
bigger towards the wing tip.
With permanent changing twisting the flapping wing must adapt to these alternating
incoming flow directions. But in the interest of thrust generation the lift distribution must not
be constant along the wing span over the flapping cycle.

During the wing down stroke the lift distribution is bigger altogether than when gliding and
more shifted towards the wing tip. It is easy to imagine that thrust is generated along the
whole wing span during stroke motion. This works similar to a propeller blade with a very
large pitch - only that the propeller torque force that has to be overcome is here called lift and
is also used like that.

At the wing upstroke circumstances are reversed. Overall, the lift distribution is smaller and
more shifted towards the wing root. With the stroke movement in the direction of the lift
force the flapping wing now acts as a wind turbine blade. If the lift force is big enough it
presses the wing upward even without a mechanical drive. Thereby, the wing operates with
the operating drag or working drag, of a wind turbine against the flight direction.
COMPLETE DESIGN OF THE PROJECT

Complete design of the ornithopter with all the components

Complete design of wings and tail part with controls

CONCLUSION

In this paper the case for the construction of a large scale ornithopter
suitable for control systems research is motivated. In order to work with the dynamics and
controls of a flapping wing flying vehicle while these future targets are currently in
development a scaled up version has been designed and constructed. With its larger payload
capacity it's capable of carrying a fully equipped computer and high-end inertia measurement
unit with the option of future additions of GPS or other more exotic sensors. The ornithopter
was designed from the ground up with the needs of research in mind. All components have
been designed to be as lightweight and high performance as possible so as to maximize
payload capacity and are intended to fail in predicable and field repairable ways. Examples of
this are the screw in wing spars and replaceable face plates. In addition to this all parts of the
ornithopter are simple and inexpensive to fabricate and assemble