This asynchronous and self-adapting aviator can adjust the frequency and amplitude of its wings under certain external disturbances.
Photo credit: Krzysztof Niewolny on Unsplash
Flying is an energetically demanding activity and has become some of the most agile and fastest fliers in the world when it comes to insects. The flight takes place mechanically through synchronous or asynchronous contractions of the flight muscles in the chest. Synchronous contractions, in which a neural impulse leads to a direct contraction and relaxation of these muscles, have inspired scientists to develop state-of-the-art flying robots with controlled wing movement.
Robots that use asynchronous flight muscles, on the other hand, have not yet been fully explored. However, a team of researchers led by Qi Mingjing, an associate professor at Beihang University, argues that they have untapped benefits such as low power consumption and potential miniaturization. In a study recently published in Advanced Intelligent Systems, they created an artificial muscle capable of mimicking the natural asynchronous flight muscle found in insects like bees, flies, and mosquitoes. Your system is self-adjusting, based on electrostatic actuation, and can adjust the frequency of the beating winds and the amplitude in response to specific external stimuli.
The artificial flier weighed 5.4 mg and was able to take off at a speed of 35 mm / s and was floating along a series of guide rails. Under certain external disturbances, the flight arrangement could adapt its frequency and amplitude in order to keep the aerodynamic lift of the stunt pilot approximately unchanged.
“In addition to this self-adapting property, our device also showed advantages in terms of miniaturization,” says Mingjing. “Based on this dynamic model for the asynchronous drive mechanism in conjunction with our experimental data, the remarkably low power consumption and high efficiency means that our devices have the potential to run on solar cells and could be used to drive tiny artificial flying insects with unbound, Endurance and autonomous flight. “
Reference: Qi mingjing, et al., Asynchronous and self-adapting flight arrangement via electrostatic actuation of flapping wings, Advanced Intelligent Systems (2021). DOI: 10.1002 / aisy.202100048
