Flapping Wing

This flapping wing was calculated using the unsteady vortex panel methodAlan Lai’s Fortran code. It assumes inviscid incompressible potential flow (irrotational). I also have a working Mathematica version of this code, but it is a little lengthy to show here.

Flapping Wing – Fortran 90, rendered in POV-Ray 3.6.1, 4/28/06

Links

• Unsteady Panel Code Simulations – by Kevin Jones
• Insect Flight – Jane Wang made one of the first simulations to predict that an insect can produce sufficient lift to remain aloft. Here is another article about it. See also these Vortex Method Simulations by Jeff Eldredge.
• Robotic Fly – Uses piezoelectric actuators, by Ron Fearing. See also his Microfly with piezoelectric actuators.
• Harvard Microrobotics Lab – see this video
• Flapping MAV – interesting design by Kevin Jones
• Biomimetics – Biomimetics is the study of biological mechanisms in order to engineer machines that can mimic them.
• RoboCup – International robotic soccer competitions. Their goal is to build robots that can defeat champion human soccer players by the year 2050. It looks like they still have a way to go. See also RoboGames.
• Bionic Dolphin – this submarine is too buoyant to go underwater, but when it is going fast enough, its “flippers” work like upside-down airplane “wings” to force it under water.
• Airic’s Arm – bionic arm operated by “Fluidic Muscles”
• more biomimetics links: Air-Ray (very cool flying manta ray), Aqua-Ray (underwater manta ray), Snake Robot (see video and sidewinding snake), robotic dragonfly toy, NASA’s robotic serpent, BigDog, Spinybot II wall climber, RoboPike, robotic caterpillar, RoboSnail, robotic mule, RoboStrider, RoboRoach hexapod, robotic dolphin, RoboLobster adapted from