The aerodynamics and compact dynamic model of a flapping wing vehicle

In this paper, the dynamics of a flapping wing vehicle are studied. A quasi-steady model is developed to analyze its aerodynamic forces and moments. The unsteady effects are considered both in hovering state and forward flight state. Different from existing flapping wing vehicle dynamics model, the rudder's dynamics are concurrently considered in the proposed one. Numerical simulation is conducted for showing the detail characteristics of the flapping wing vehicle. After rigorous summation and analysis, a simplified dynamic model is constructed by using the averaging theory. The development of the simplified model paved the way for further studies and applications of similar flapping vehicle mechanism, such as perturbation analysis and controller design.