Bioinspired Flapping-Wing Robot With Direct-Driven Piezoelectric Actuation and Its Takeoff Demonstration

In this letter, we present the design and the performance of a prototype bioinspired flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle with piezoelectric direct-driven actuation. This type of actuation is superior in terms of structural simplicity because it does not include any transmission mechanism. Instead, a unimorph piezoelectric actuator directly drives the wing. We designed and fabricated a two-wing prototype with a wingspan of 114 mm and successfully demonstrated takeoff using an external power source under a one-degree-of-freedom constraint. The total mass of the prototype was 598 mg, and the maximum measured lift force was 6.52 mN (665 mgf) at a driving voltage of 100 V. We achieved tethered flight using the proposed direct-driven piezoelectric actuator considering the constraint.