School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People's Republic of China.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2017 Sep 26;12(5):056007. doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/aa7f16.
The pursuit of a high lift force for insect-scale flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FMAVs) requires that their artificial wings possess biomimetic wing features which are close to those of their natural counterpart. In this work, we present both fabrication and testing methods for artificial insect wings with biomimetic wing morphology and mechanical properties. The artificial cicada (Hyalessa maculaticollis) wing is fabricated through a high precision laser cutting technique and a bonding process of multilayer materials. Through controlling the shape of the wing venation, the fabrication method can achieve three-dimensional wing architecture, including cambers or corrugations. Besides the artificial cicada wing, the proposed fabrication method also shows a promising versatility for diverse wing types. Considering the artificial cicada wing's characteristics of small size and light weight, special mechanical testing systems are designed to investigate its mechanical properties. Flexural stiffness, maximum deformation rate and natural frequency are measured and compared with those of its natural counterpart. Test results reveal that the mechanical properties of the artificial cicada wing depend strongly on its vein thickness, which can be used to optimize an artificial cicada wing's mechanical properties in the future. As such, this work provides a new form of artificial insect wings which can be used in the field of insect-scale FMAVs.
为了追求昆虫级扑翼微型飞行器（FMAV）的高升力，需要使它们的人造翅膀具有仿生翼特征，这些特征与它们的自然对应物相似。在这项工作中，我们提出了具有仿生翼形态和机械性能的人造昆虫翅膀的制造和测试方法。人造蝉（Hyalessa maculaticollis）翅膀通过高精度激光切割技术和多层材料的粘合工艺制造。通过控制翼脉的形状，制造方法可以实现包括拱度或波纹在内的三维翼结构。除了人造蝉翼之外，所提出的制造方法还为各种翼型展示了有前途的多功能性。考虑到人造蝉翼的小尺寸和轻重量的特点，专门设计了机械测试系统来研究其机械性能。测量并比较了弯曲刚度、最大变形率和固有频率，并与天然蝉翼进行了比较。测试结果表明，人造蝉翼的机械性能强烈依赖于其翼脉厚度，这可用于未来优化人造蝉翼的机械性能。因此，这项工作为昆虫级 FMAV 领域提供了一种新的人造昆虫翅膀形式。
