Dynamic simulation and optimization of artificial insect-sized flapping wings for a bioinspired kinematics using a two resonant vibration modes combination

Abstract

This paper addresses the design of the elastic structure of artificial wings to optimize their dynamical behaviour to reproduce insect wings kinematics. Our bioinspired kinematics is based on the original concept of using the resonant properties of the wing structure in order to combine the motion of two vibration modes, a flapping and a twisting mode, in a quadrature phase shift. Oneway of achieving this particular combination is to optimize the geometry and elastic characteristics of the flexible structure such that the two modes are successive in the eigenspectrum and close in frequency. This paper first proposes a semi-analytical model, based on assembled Euler-Bernoulli beams, to understand, compute and optimize the artificial wing dynamic vibrations. Then, using this model, it is shown that it is possible to obtain several artificial wing structures with a flapping and a twisting mode close in frequency. Finally, experimental validations are performed on micromachined insect-sized prototypes to validate the model and the concept.