Untethered flight of an insect-sized flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle
Untethered flight of an insect-sized flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/s41586-019-1322-0
复制
发表时间：
2019-06-27
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Wood, Robert J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jafferis, Noah T.;Helbling, E. Farrell;Wood, Robert J.
任何规模的重于空气的飞行在能量方面都是消耗巨大的。在小尺度下，这一问题更加严重，到目前为止，对于昆虫大小（质量小于500毫克且翼展小于5厘米）的机器人的无束缚飞行来说，这已经构成了一个无法逾越的障碍。由于在有限的有效载荷能力内集成机载电子设备存在困难，这些飞行器（1 - 4）因此需要通过系绳连接到外部电源和信号发生器来飞行。在此，我们应对这些挑战，展示了一个昆虫大小的扑翼微型飞行器的持续无束缚飞行。这个90毫克的飞行器使用由两个氧化铝增强型压电致动器驱动的四个翅膀来提高空气动力效率（相对于类似的双翅飞行器（5）提高了多达29%），并实现了4.1∶1的峰值升重比，展示出比典型的生物同类（6）更高的单位肌肉质量推力。飞行器的集成系统以及无束缚飞行所需的电子设备（一个光伏阵列和一个信号发生器）重259毫克，还有额外的有效载荷能力可用于搭载其他机载设备。该系统仅消耗110 - 120毫瓦的功率，与蜜蜂（7）等同样大小的昆虫的推力效率相当。这种昆虫级别的飞行器是迄今为止实现持续无束缚飞行（与脉冲式跳跃（8）或起飞（9）相对）最轻的。
Heavier-than-air flight at any scale is energetically expensive. This is greatly exacerbated at small scales and has so far presented an insurmountable obstacle for untethered flight in insect-sized (mass less than 500 milligrams and wingspan less than 5 centimetres) robots. These vehicles(1-4) thus need to fly tethered to an offboard power supply and signal generator owing to the challenges associated with integrating onboard electronics within a limited payload capacity. Here we address these challenges to demonstrate sustained untethered flight of an insect-sized flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle. The 90-milligram vehicle uses four wings driven by two alumina-reinforced piezoelectric actuators to increase aerodynamic efficiency (by up to 29 per cent relative to similar two-wing vehicles(5)) and achieve a peak lift-to-weight ratio of 4.1 to 1, demonstrating greater thrust per muscle mass than typical biological counterparts(6). The integrated system of the vehicle together with the electronics required for untethered flight (a photovoltaic array and a signal generator) weighs 259 milligrams, with an additional payload capacity allowing for additional onboard devices. Consuming only 110-120 milliwatts of power, the system matches the thrust efficiency of similarly sized insects such as bees(7). This insect-scale aerial vehicle is the lightest thus far to achieve sustained untethered flight (as opposed to impulsive jumping(8) or liftoff(9)).