Fabricable polymer micromachined insect mimetic wing for pico air vehicles

This paper presents a novel fabricable design and demonstration of a polymer micromachined wing for flapping wing pico air vehicles, which is capable of producing camber deformations similar to those of real insects. The proposed wing is a 2.5-dimensional structure comprised of the leading edge, center, and root veins, and the wing membrane such that it can be fabricated using polymer micromachining. The design window that refers to the area of satisfactory design solutions is iteratively searched using a nonlinear finite element structural analysis. In the design problem, the mean camber is the design characteristic, the thickness of each vein is the design parameter, and the design constraint is the fabricability. A final design solution with sufficient camber is selected from the design window, and the fabricability is demonstrated using polymer micromachining.