Development of flapping wing micro air vehicle

This paper presents the successful development of flapping wing Micro Air Vehicles "Npu-sentinel". A light-weight, lowfriction transmission mechanism was fabricated to drive flapping wing. Dynamic characteristic of the flapping wing was investigated in the Low Turbulent Flow Wind Tunnel at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU). The "Npusentinel" prototype has undergone successfully flight tests many times. It weighs approximately 40 grams, with a 40cm span and 21cm fuselage length. The onboard electronic subsystems are smallest and lightest among the commercial products.It is radio-controlled and is capable of turning left or right, pitching up or down. So far, the best flight duration achieved is 10 minutes on two KoKam 360-mAhr Ni-Cad cells. The success of "Npu-sentinel" prototype proves preliminarily that 40-centimeter span micro air vehicle is feasible and usable. The authors confirm that they, and/or their company or institution, hold copyright on all of the original material included in their paper. They also confirm they have obtained permission, from the copyright holder of any third party material included in their paper, to publish it as part of their paper. The authors grant full permission for the publication and distribution of their paper as part of the ICAS2008 proceedings or as individual off-prints from the proceedings.