2g Butterfly-style Flapping Robots Capable of Autonomous Flight
Yuki TERANISHI, Takuto OGURA, Hajime Endo, Taro Fujikawa · The Proceedings of JSME annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (Robomec) · 2024
To realize a palm-sized flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle (FMAV) that can fly autonomously, small flapping robots modeled on a butterfly with a mass of less than 2 g were developed. Equipped with a motor and battery, it flaps at a frequency of 7 Hz. The wing shapes were modeled after two species of butterflies in the Papilionidae family and two species of butterflies in the Nymphalidae family, and their performance was evaluated through flight experiments. Each model took off at an initial speed of 0.3 m/s from a height of 1.6 m, descended about 200 mm, and then flew at a constant altitude. The vertical movement of flight was similar to that of butterflies, but the robot with Papilionidae’s wing shape tended to ascend more.