Experimental studies of tail shapes for hummingbird-like flapping wing micro air vehicles

Nan, Y., Chen, Y., Mcglinchey, D. and Li, Y. (2020) Experimental studies of tail shapes for hummingbird-like flapping wing micro air vehicles. IEEE Access, 8, pp. 52622-52630. (doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2981190)

Abstract

The stability of flying of a hummingbird-like flapping-wing micro air vehicle (MAV) has been challenging. In this paper, experimental studies are reported on the tail shapes of hummingbird-like flapping-wing MAVs, since tails play an important role in-flight stability. Dynamics parameters of hummingbird tails are firstly studied and evaluated. Then man-made tails inspired by the natural hummingbirds are designed, manufactured and optimized for experimental tests. The results show that lift generated by the tail is independent of a fan angle, whereas the pitch moment is related to the fan angle. Further, the tail can be applied to stabilising hovering twin-wing flapping wing MAVs.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Li, Professor Yun
• Authors: Nan, Y., Chen, Y., Mcglinchey, D., and Li, Y.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: IEEE Access
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 2169-3536
• ISSN (Online): 2169-3536
• Published Online: 16 March 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 The Authors
• First Published: First published in IEEE Access 8: 52622-52630
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License