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Aerospace
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Bio-Inspired Aerospace System
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Bio-Inspired Aerospace System

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 September 2018) | Viewed by 61949

Special Issue Editor

Assoc. Prof. Sutthiphong Srigrarom

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Aerospace Sciences Research Division, School of Engineering, University of Glasgow Singapore, Singapore Polytechnic Campus, Singapore
Interests: unsteady aerodynamics; flapping wing MAV; bio-inspired fluid mechanics flying/swimming studies; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/Micro Aerial Vehicle (UAV); vision-based navigation; swarming of UAVs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Physical and aerodynamic characteristics of insects and birds in flight offer benefits over typical propeller or rotor driven miniature air vehicle (MAV) locomotion designs in certain applications. It has become the great interest of many scientists, researchers, companies and even hobbyists around the world. The purpose of this Special Issue on Bio-Inspired Aerospace System is to address the current issues and developments, and help with the design challenges associated with the further advancement of the field.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • - Kinematics of flapping wing
  • - Biological aspect of flying
  • - Aerodynamics of flying
  • - Biomimetic flying machine
  • - Flapping wing or flying wing mechanisms
  • - Visual system of flying machine
  • - Fluid-Structure Interaction of flapping wing
  • - Energy and power consideration of flying machines
  • - Artificial materials and actuators
  • - Biological neuromuscular system
  • - Flapping wing models
Assoc. Prof. Sutthiphong Srigrarom
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Flapping wing
  • Flying insects and birds
  • Flying robots
  • Biomimetics

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3834 KiB  
Article
The Replication Hypothesis along the Take-Off Run and a System of Equilibrium Equations at the Lift-Off of a Protobird
by Phillip Burgers
Aerospace 2019, 6(2), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace6020021 - 15 Feb 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4988
Abstract
An extant bird resorts to flapping and running along its take-off run to generate lift and thrust in order to reach the minimum required wing velocity speed required for lift-off. This paper introduces the replication hypothesis that posits that the variation of lift [...] Read more.
An extant bird resorts to flapping and running along its take-off run to generate lift and thrust in order to reach the minimum required wing velocity speed required for lift-off. This paper introduces the replication hypothesis that posits that the variation of lift relative to the thrust generated by the flapping wings of an extant bird, along its take-off run, replicates the variation of lift relative to the thrust by the flapping wings of a protobird as it evolves towards sustained flight. The replication hypothesis combines experimental data from extant birds with evidence from the paleontological record of protobirds to come up with a physics-based model of its evolution towards sustained flight while scaling down the time span from millions of years to a few seconds. A second hypothesis states that the vertical and horizontal forces acting on a protobird when it first encounters lift-off are in equilibrium as the protobird exerts its maximum available power for flapping, equaling its lift with its weight, and its thrust with its drag. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Aerospace System)
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18 pages, 7499 KiB  
Article
CFD Study of the Impact of Variable Cant Angle Winglets on Total Drag Reduction
by Joel Guerrero, Marco Sanguineti and Kevin Wittkowski
Aerospace 2018, 5(4), 126; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace5040126 - 3 Dec 2018
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 15020
Abstract
Winglets are commonly used drag-reduction and fuel-saving technologies in today’s aviation. The primary purpose of the winglets is to reduce the lift-induced drag, therefore improving fuel efficiency and aircraft performance. Traditional winglets are designed as fixed devices attached at the tips of the [...] Read more.
Winglets are commonly used drag-reduction and fuel-saving technologies in today’s aviation. The primary purpose of the winglets is to reduce the lift-induced drag, therefore improving fuel efficiency and aircraft performance. Traditional winglets are designed as fixed devices attached at the tips of the wings. However, because they are fixed surfaces, they give their best lift-induced drag reduction at a single design point. In this work, we propose the use of variable cant angle winglets which could potentially allow aircraft to get the best all-around performance (in terms of lift-induced drag reduction), at different angle-of-attack values. By using computational fluid dynamics, we study the influence of the winglet cant angle and sweep angle in the performance of a benchmark wing at a Mach number of 0.8395. The results obtained demonstrate that by carefully adjusting the cant angle, the aerodynamic performance can be improved at different angles of attack. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Aerospace System)
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15 pages, 6987 KiB  
Article
Flow Visualization around a Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle in Free Flight Using Large-Scale PIV
by Alejandro Del Estal Herrero, Mustafa Percin, Matej Karasek and Bas Van Oudheusden
Aerospace 2018, 5(4), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace5040099 - 20 Sep 2018
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 7347
Abstract
Flow visualizations have been performed on a free flying, flapping-wing micro air vehicle (MAV), using a large-scale particle image velocimetry (PIV) approach. The PIV method involves the use of helium-filled soap bubbles (HFSB) as tracer particles. HFSB scatter light with much higher intensity [...] Read more.
Flow visualizations have been performed on a free flying, flapping-wing micro air vehicle (MAV), using a large-scale particle image velocimetry (PIV) approach. The PIV method involves the use of helium-filled soap bubbles (HFSB) as tracer particles. HFSB scatter light with much higher intensity than regular seeding particles, comparable to that reflected off the flexible flapping wings. This enables flow field visualization to be achieved close to the flapping wings, in contrast to previous PIV experiments with regular seeding. Unlike previous tethered wind tunnel measurements, in which the vehicle is fixed relative to the measurement setup, the MAV is now flown through the measurement area. In this way, the experiment captures the flow field of the MAV in free flight, allowing the true nature of the flow representative of actual flight to be appreciated. Measurements were performed for two different orientations of the light sheet with respect to the flight direction. In the first configuration, the light sheet is parallel to the flight direction, and visualizes a streamwise plane that intersects the MAV wings at a specific spanwise position. In the second configuration, the illumination plane is normal to the flight direction, and visualizes the flow as the MAV passes through the light sheet. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Aerospace System)
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Graphical abstract

12 pages, 7750 KiB  
Article
Experimental Study of the Aerodynamic Interaction between the Forewing and Hindwing of a Beetle-Type Ornithopter
by Hidetoshi Takahashi, Kosuke Abe, Tomoyuki Takahata and Isao Shimoyama
Aerospace 2018, 5(3), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace5030083 - 8 Aug 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6834
Abstract
Beetles have attracted attention from researchers due to their unique combination of a passively flapping forewing and an actively flapping hindwing during flight. Because the wing loads of beetles are larger than the wing loads of other insects, the mechanism of beetle flight [...] Read more.
Beetles have attracted attention from researchers due to their unique combination of a passively flapping forewing and an actively flapping hindwing during flight. Because the wing loads of beetles are larger than the wing loads of other insects, the mechanism of beetle flight is potentially useful for modeling a small aircraft with a large weight. In this paper, we present a beetle-type ornithopter in which the wings are geometrically and kinematically modeled after an actual beetle. Furthermore, the forewing is designed to be changeable between no-wing, flapping-wing, or fixed-wing configurations. Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) differential pressure sensors were attached to both the forewing and the hindwing to evaluate the aerodynamic performance during flight. Whether the forewing is configured as a flapping wing or a fixed wing, it generated constant positive differential pressure during forward flight, whereas the differential pressure on the hindwing varied with the flapping motion during forward flight. The experimental results suggest that beetles utilize the forewing for effective vertical force enhancement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Aerospace System)
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Graphical abstract

12 pages, 1132 KiB  
Article
Autonomous Door and Corridor Traversal with a 20-Gram Flapping Wing MAV by Onboard Stereo Vision
by Sjoerd Tijmons, Christophe De Wagter, Bart Remes and Guido De Croon
Aerospace 2018, 5(3), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace5030069 - 25 Jun 2018
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5698
Abstract
Autonomous flight of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles (FWMAVs) is a major challenge in the field of robotics, due to their light weight and their flapping-induced body motions. An FWMAV is presented weighing a mere 20 g while all its sensors and processing [...] Read more.
Autonomous flight of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles (FWMAVs) is a major challenge in the field of robotics, due to their light weight and their flapping-induced body motions. An FWMAV is presented weighing a mere 20 g while all its sensors and processing for autonomous flight are onboard. The navigation is based on a 4-g stereo vision camera with onboard processing. Three basic navigational tasks are demonstrated, namely obstacle avoidance, door traversing and corridor following. The presented combination of sensors and control routines is shown to allow flight in common unprepared environments like corridors and offices. The algorithms do not depend on prior classification or learning of the environment or control logic and work in any unprepared environment with vertical texture. While some failure cases remain, this work forms an important step towards very small autonomous indoor MAV. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Aerospace System)
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Graphical abstract

28332 KiB  
Article
Winglet Geometry Impact on DLR-F4 Aerodynamics and an Analysis of a Hyperbolic Winglet Concept
by Djahid Gueraiche and Sergey Popov
Aerospace 2017, 4(4), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace4040060 - 15 Dec 2017
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 20437
Abstract
In this article, the growth of aerodynamic efficiency and the growth of the wing structural stress is studied for DLR-F4 typical transport aircraft wing-body, after installing classical Whitcomb winglets of different configurations and a delta wingtip fence. A new-concept curved-span winglet was mathematically [...] Read more.
In this article, the growth of aerodynamic efficiency and the growth of the wing structural stress is studied for DLR-F4 typical transport aircraft wing-body, after installing classical Whitcomb winglets of different configurations and a delta wingtip fence. A new-concept curved-span winglet was mathematically developed and approved through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and static structural experiments, revealing the interaction of sub- and transonic air flow dynamics with the wingtip device geometry. The design space of the winglet geometry was explored briefly, and an evaluation of the lift-to-drag ratio increment depending on various winglet input parameters was performed. In particular, the winglet cant angle effect on lift and drag was thoroughly analyzed at various flow regimes and angles of attack, revealing an ambiguity and a conflicting character of results between highly canted winglets and nearly vertical ones. As a result of cant angle impact analysis, a curved winglet concept is suggested and mathematically parametrized, that could provide an innovative solution, alternative to a morphing winglet, but much simpler with a fixed structure. In conclusion, a multidisciplinary winglet efficiency estimation criterion is suggested for comparing the aerodynamic efficiency of different wingtip devices with respect to their structural weight penalty in real flight conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Aerospace System)
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