An intelligent, flexible morphing wing with posture-locking capability for cooperative and integral bending deformation

Compared to the rigid wing, the flexible morphing wing is more intelligent and flexible, allowing the aircraft to more flexibly adapt to different flight mission requirements. Based on deformable pneumatic wing ribs and dielectric elastomer (DE) smart skins, here we report an intelligent flexible morphing wing to achieve the cooperative deformation of the overall wing structure. In addition, the posture-locking structure and lateral adsorption structure are designed to achieve the stiffness regulation and the control of adhesion and de-bonding between different wing units. Meanwhile, experiments are conducted to measure the bending angle and output force of the morphing wing under the combined effect of the pneumatic wing ribs and DE skin. Subsequently, the adhesion properties are experimentally measured by installing the posture-locking structure and lateral adsorption structure onto the morphing wing. Finally, by placing multiple units in parallel, the independent and integral deformation capabilities of a multi-unit assembled wing are demonstrated.