Research on bionic foldable wing for flapping wing micro air vehicle

This paper presents a bionic foldable wing that imitates the hind wing of ladybirds. Based on the folding mechanism of the hind wing of ladybirds and the theory of origami, the motion model of the bionic foldable wing is established, yield the motion law of the crease angles and the variation relationship between the panels are obtained. Bionic foldable wings utilise shape memory alloy to drive wings to fold, and embedded torsion springs to release energy to realize the function of wing unfolding. In the experiments of the vehicle equipped with foldable wings, the lift and attitude torque of bionic foldable wings are measured by the F/T sensor. The experimental results indicated that its aerodynamic performance is basically close to that of our optimized non-foldable wings. Moreover, the vehicle with foldable wings has been able to overcome gravity to achieve flight, which provides a novel concept for the research on flapping wing.