Design of a flapping wing micro air vehicle, based on the Rufous Hummingbird

At small scales such as these of insects and hummingbirds, flapping wing propulsion becomes increasingly efficient compared to other types of flying propulsion. Moreover, flapping wings allow very complex flying maneuvers. These features make flapping wings a promising concept for micro air vehicles which have to be able e.g. to operate inside buildings. Due to its size and remarkable flying capacities, the Rufous Hummingbird serves as a perfect example for developing a micro air vehicle with flapping wings. In addition, it´s one of the few species of whose wing motion is thoroughly studied. To take advantage of the lift enhancing mechanisms that might occur around flapping wings, a complex wing movement is required. Because of the difficulty in realizing this complex motion, existing micro air vehicles with flapping wings lag behind their biological counterparts in creating lift. This article presents the first micro air vehicle that uses a new kind of flapping mechanism which is able to mimic the wing motion of the Rufous Hummingbird in such a way that it generates the same amount of lift.