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Mormopterus planiceps 2.19.4 9.34 1.38 40.68 10.15
Nyctophilus geoffroyi 0.87.2 10.94 0.96 43.92 16.44
Scotorepens balstoni 3.35.0 11.31 0.67 35.00 8.29
Present study 27 69 60
parameters such as wing span, aspect ratio, wing area,
wing loading, and wing mass have been approximated
as 270 mm, 0.013 m
2
, 4.95, 4.61 N m
2
, and 6 g,
respectively. Similarly, the kinematic characteristics
such as wind speed, apping frequency, and apping
angle are chosen as 27 m s
1
, 69 Hz, and 60 3
.
Wing frame and membrane
The wing frame materials previously used include
titanium alloy,
3
and composites such as epoxy
reinforced carbon,
8
graphite epoxy,
5
carbon rod,
17
carbon ber,
10,11
and glass ber.
13
Titanium alloy
is widely used for aircraft gas turbine disks and
blades as well as airframe structural components that
require strength and high temperature tolerance. It
is light and strong, and can be easily tapered to
vary the thickness of wingspars. Being ductile, it
can also be bent to create wing camber to improve
performance. In addition, the etching process of
titanium alloy can be conducted at room temperature
and yields a reasonable etching rate.
3
In the present
study, the commercially available titanium alloy,
3
Ti 6Al 4V, is used. Wing layouts are developed
from photographs of bat with their wings extended
that are scaled to have a length (R) of 120 mm per
wing. The wing frame has two battens in the cordwise
direction to strengthen the stiffness of the wing and
control the wing deformation during apping. The
thickness of the entire frame is 0.35 mm, and gradual
tapering in width is provided for the frame and
battens, from leading edge to trailing edge, and from
root to tip as shown in Fig. 1.
Next attempt is to develop the exible wing
membrane. Generally, polymers
3,8,5,10,11,16,17
and
elastomers
13
have been used for exible wing mem-
brane. It is well established that, when compared
with the polymers, elastomers exhibit low Youngs
Figure 1 Schematic of the wing frame.
Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics 27
Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism H. Yusoff et al.
Figure 2 The latex membrane glued on the wing frame.
modulus while maintaining the same range of density
(http://www.grantadesign.com/ashbycharts.htm);
this makes them a better choice for exible wing
membrane. Therefore, latex, a typical elastomer, is
used in the present study, which is glued onto the
frame as shown in Fig. 2. Membranes with thick-
nesses 0.37 mm, 0.28 mm, and 0.13 mm are chosen,
which are named as least exible, exible, and most
exible, respectively.
Flapping mechanism
Four-bar linkage mechanism
A four-bar slider-crank mechanism is designed and
tested to facilitate the sinusoidal apping motion,
with the amplitude adjustable from 40 to 60
.
The design considerations of the mechanism are
light weight, simplicity, rigidity, minimum joints,
harmonic motion, and minimum phase difference
between the wings. Before fabrication, a complete set
of CAD models are developed using SOLIDWORKS-
2007 to ensure an accurate t between parts; all the
views are shown in Fig. 3. The apper is 56 mm high
and 25 mm long. For the selected apping angle of
60
2
= sin
1
_
a sin
1
b
_
. (4)
The effective distance between B and C (or D) is as
follows:
g = f e. (5)
From symmetry of triangles BMC and BMD, we get
the following:
f
= sin
1
_
g
d
_
. (6)
(a) (b)
Figure 3 (a) Different views of the apping mechanism. (b) Zoomed view at A.
28 Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics
H. Yusoff et al. Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism
Figure 4 The kinematic model of the apping mechanism.
Substituting Eqs. 2 and 5 in 6, we obtain the
following:
f
= sin
1
_
_
_
_
_
a cos
1
+b cos
_
sin
1
_
a sin
1
b
___
e
d
_
_
.
(7)
Using the chain rule, angular velocity can be
expressed as follows:
d
dt
=
a
1
g cos
_
sin
1
+cos
1
tan
_
sin
1
_
a sin
1
b
___
.
(8)
Hence the angular acceleration is
d
2
dt
2
=
_
_
_
_
a
2
1
g
_
_
_
_
cos
1
sin
1
tan
_
sin
1
_
a sin
1
b
__
+
a
b
cos
2
1
cos
2
_
sin
1
_
a sin
1
b
__
_
_
_
_
+sin
_
d
dt
_
2
_
_
cos
. (9)
Electronic control system
System architecture overview
The ECS consists of a microcontroller, motor driver,
DC minimotor with encoder, variable resistor, power
supply, and a personal computer with graphical user
interface (GUI) software. The PIC16F876 microcon-
troller acts as a brain to the system and controls every
input and output. One of the main functions is to
control the speed of the DC minimotor through the
motor driver. A DC power supply is used to provide
15 V which is then converted to 5 V by an LM7805
voltage regulator. The communication to the motor
driver from the microcontroller is accomplished using
pulse width modulation (PWM); the data are then
used by the motor driver (MCP 1404) to control
motor speed detected by the built-in encoder (series
30B20). The encoder helps to measure the actual
speed of the motor, and acts as a feedback to the
system to synchronize the required speed and actual
speed. The output of the encoder is in the form of
pulses (05 V) with a resolution of 10 lines per rev-
olution. Figures 5 and 6 show the block diagram and
prototype, respectively, of the ECS.
Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics 29
Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism H. Yusoff et al.
Figure 5 ECS block diagram.
Figure 6 ECS prototype board.
PIC16F876 is a 28-pin 8-bit CMOS Flash micro-
controller which contains 256 bytes of EEPROM data
memory, ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming), an
ICD, 5 channels of 10-bit analog-to-digital con-
verter (ADC), 2 additional timers, and 2 cap-
ture/compare/PWM functions with 10-bit maximum
resolution. The synchronous serial port can be con-
gured as either three-wire serial peripheral interface
(SPI) or the two-wire inter-integrated circuit (I
2
C)
bus and a universal asynchronous receiver transmit-
ter (USART). The PIC16F876A can be driven at a
maximum clock speed of 20 MHz. In this experiment,
the ADC is set to 8-bit, so that the detectable range is
between 0 and 255 (2
8
= 256). The conversion from
analog voltage to digital bits is shown in
Table 3 Analog voltage to 8-bit of PIC microcontrollers ADC
Analog voltage (V) PIC 8-bit (bit)
0 0
1 51
2 102
3 153
4 204
5 255
Table 3. Since 8-bit is used for ADC, the same
resolution is applied toward the PWM modules. The
frequency of 10 kHz is chosen to match with the
motor driver, hence make the time for 1 cycle equal
to 100 s. Figure 7 shows two different values of
PWM, for 50 and 10% duty cycle. Next, RS232 UART
is used for the serial communication with the personal
computer. The microcontroller can support the baud
rates from 300 up to 57,600 bps. However, at higher
speed, it is more prone to higher percentage of data
transfer error. A 9600 bps baud rate is chosen for this
experiment with driven inverted state. The RS232 is
congured as 8N1, which means eight data bits, no
parity bit, and one stop bit as shown in Fig. 8.
ECS functioning and testing
The operation of the ECS in this apping model is
shown in Fig. 9. The system starts after the power
source has turned on to enable PC serial com-
munication using Windows HyperTerminal (WHT)
software. Before getting connected, the software has
to be congured as a serial RS232 COM terminal,
by setting the port as follows: baud rate = 9600 bps,
data bits = 8, parity = none, stop bits = 1, ow con-
trol = hardware. A modication value ranging from
0.1 to 9.9 needs to be entered into the WHT write-
display space to ensure that connection is established
and there is a handshaking link between system
board and PC. The speed of the motor is adjusted
to the desired value by the potentiometer. The ADC
50% duty cycle
(50 s)
1cycle
(100 s)
10% duty cycle
(10 s)
1 cycle
(100 s)
Figure 7 PWM waveforms of two different duty cycles.
Figure 8 8N1 conguration; eight data bits, no parity bit, and one
stop bit.
30 Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics
H. Yusoff et al. Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism
Figure 9 Flow chart of the ECS functioning.
digital values are then calculated and converted into
PWM values to drive the MCP1404 PWM driver chip,
which runs the motor at variable speeds. The signal
sent to the MCP1404 driver is programmed at a fre-
quency of 10 kHz, with variable PWM duty cycles to
get variable motor speeds. Then the microcontroller
calculates RPS (revolutions per second) value pro-
duced by the magnetic encoder (pulse signal). The
calculated RPS value is then sent and displayed on
the PC via serial COM port in real-time mode. The
process will repeat until the modication values and
potentiometer trim are being changed.
In the open air test section, the pitch angle of
the apping axis, w, with respect to the free stream
velocity V can be changed by adjusting the test mount
which supports the driving part. The analog signal
from strain gauge (load cell) is amplied, digitized,
and conditioned via PCD-300A sensor interface and
linked to the data acquisition board to collect the
frequency signal (x) and transmit the raw data into
Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics 31
Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism H. Yusoff et al.
computer by using GUI software data acquisition.
The data collection frequency is set at 5000 Hz and
15,000 data points are collected at each test run.
The raw data are smoothed using digital Butterworth
low-pass lter with cut-off frequencies set at 5 Hz and
second order.
The frequency signal from the load cell is matched
with the frequency value obtained by the ECS,
and if any difference is noticed, the ECS facilitates
further adjustments until the difference becomes zero,
ensuring calibration at the required frequency. The
testing of ECS is performed with velocity ranging from
2 to 8 m s
1
and AOA from 0
up to 50
, at 6 Hz. The
schematic and photograph of the experiment setup
are shown in Fig. 10.
Results and Discussion
Flapping angle, angular velocity, and acceleration
Figure 11 shows the sequel images of the wing for one
cycle of apping, captured by high-speed camera, and
Fig. 12 shows the apping angle. The apping angle
obtained from Eq. 7 is compared with the experi-
mental results as shown in Fig. 13. Since the stroke
plane is coplanar with the image, the apping angle
can be measured directly from the image. From
the high-speed camera images, the apping angle is
calculated to be 33
as in Table 2.
Equations 29 are solved using Matlab tool,
SIMULINK. Figure 14 shows the angular velocity
and angular acceleration for one cycle of rotation
at 1 Hz. The rotational speed of the motor is
assumed to be constant in the analysis and it
is ensured that the mechanism operates smoothly
without obvious jumps or jerks. The results show a
sinusoidal apping motion. Figure 14(a) shows that
the angular velocity corresponding to the maximum
apping amplitude (30
(L mean) = L
mean/[(1/2)(V
2
S
], (11)
C
(D mean) = D
mean/[(1/2)(V
2
S
], (12)
where L is the the mean lift force, D the mean drag
force, S the wing platform area, V
. As
expected, C
L mean
and C
D mean
increase dramatically
with increase of frequency and decrease of velocity.
Figure 17 shows the corresponding histories of
apping angle lift and drag coefcients (C
L
and
C
D
, respectively). It is seen that the lift has almost
32 Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics
H. Yusoff et al. Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism
(a)
(b)
Figure 10 (a) Schematic of experiment setup of apping mechanism using ECS and load cell for calibration. (b) The experimental apparatus.
Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics 33
Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism H. Yusoff et al.
Figure 11 Sequel images of the wing for one cycle of apping.
Figure 12 Flapping angle observed by high-speed camera.
Crank angle, Degree (One cycle)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
A
n
g
u
l
a
r
d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t
,
D
e
g
r
e
e
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
Theoretical
Experiment
Figure 13 Comparison of experimental and theoretical apping angle.
same frequency as the apping angle and drag signal
is twice the apping frequency. At the beginning
of the downstroke (1), the lift force is maximum,
and decreases to the minimum near the end of the
downstroke (2). In general, the lift during downstroke
is higher than that during upstroke. The values of
C
L
and C
D
are in reasonable agreement with those
obtained by Norberg
3
for the low-speed ier P. auritus.
Crank angle, Degree (One cycle)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
A
n
g
u
l
a
r
v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
(
r
a
d
s
-
1
)
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
(a)
(b)
Theoretical
Crank angle, Degree (One cycle)
A
n
g
u
l
a
r
a
c
c
l
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
,
(
r
a
d
s
-
2
)
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
Theoretical
Figure 14 Variation of angular velocity and angular acceleration with
crank angle. (a) Flapping angular velocity versus crank angle. (b) Flapping
angular acceleration versus crank angle.
Conclusion
As part of the ongoing research on aerodynamics of
MAV, an efcient and accurate exible apping wing
mechanism is developed and tested. The introduction
of integrated ECS to control and measure the apping
frequency is the major contribution in the present
work. Three bat species having dimensions close to
the design requirement of MAV, namely, M. Planiceps,
34 Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics
H. Yusoff et al. Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
10
20
30
40 X
D
a
t
a
3D Graph 7
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
X
D
a
t
a
3D Graph 5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
(a) (b)
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
10
20
30
40
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
o
f
e
r
r
o
r
(
%
)
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
,
m
s
-
1
AoA, Degree
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
10
20
30
40
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
o
f
e
r
r
o
r
(
%
)
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
,
m
s
-
1
AoA, Degree
Figure 15 Percentage of error in frequency distribution (a) without ECS and (b) with ECS.
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
(a) (b)
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
C
L
m
e
a
n
V
el oci t y
, m
s
-1 F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
,
H
z
0.4
0.6
1.0
1.2
1.4
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
C
D
m
e
a
n
V
e
lo
c
ity
,
m
s
-1
F
re
q
u
e
n
c
y
,
H
z
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Figure 16 The variations of C
L mean
and C
D mean
for frequencies 69 Hz, at AOA 20
.
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
2
3
5
4
Time (sec)
F
l
a
p
p
i
n
g
a
n
g
l
e
,
D
e
g
r
e
e
Flapping angle
Instantaneous Lift
Instantaneous Drag
1
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
C
L
a
n
d
C
D
V=6ms
-1
, F=9Hz,AoA=20
0
Figure 17 Instantaneous apping angle, lift and drag coefcients.
N. Geoffroyi, and S. Balstoni, are selected, and their
average physical and kinematic features are chosen.
The titanium alloy, Ti 6Al 4V, is used for the
wing frame, and latex for the membrane. A four-bar
slider-crank mechanism is designed and fabricated
to facilitate the wing apping. The major issues
associated with the traditional means of controlling
and measuring the apping frequency, such as
repeated calibration, large time consumption, and
measurement inaccuracy at higher AOA and velocity
are successfully rectied by the proposed ECS; the
relative error is reduced from 2535% to 0.41.8%.
The experimental apping angles are well matched
with those obtained from the theoretical kinematic
model. This system would be highly efcient for the
study of aerodynamic characteristics of FWMAVs.
Future work may be done to improve the ECS by
introducing wireless communication for the ECS
to the apping mechanism, and to reduce it to
a microchip.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of
Technology and Innovation, Malaysia, and Universiti
Experimental Techniques 37 (2013) 2537 2011, Society for Experimental Mechanics 35
Bat Wing Flapping Mechanism H. Yusoff et al.
Sains Malaysia for the nancial support for this
research work. Thanks are also due to Mr. Mohd
Fairuz Zakaria and Mr. M. Khalil Abdullah, for their
valuable assistance in the experiments.
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