Mechanism Design of a Bio-inspired Armwing Mechanism for Mimicking Bat Flapping Gait
This work addresses the problem of improving agility and adaptability in aerial drones for applications like co-bots, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing bio-inspired design concepts.
The paper tackled the design of a bio-inspired armwing mechanism to mimic bat flapping gait for aerial drones, aiming to transform drone agility by replicating bats' articulated musculoskeletal system and wing flexibility.
The objective of this work is to design and develop a bio-inspired soft and articulated armwing structure which will be an integral component of a morphing aerial co-bot, Aerobat. In our design, we draw inspiration from bats. Bat membranous wings possess unique functions that make them a good example to take inspiration from and transform current aerial drones. In contrast with other flying vertebrates, bats have an extremely articulated musculoskeletal system, key to their body impact-survivability and deliver an impressively adaptive and multimodal locomotion behavior. Bats exclusively use this capability with structural flexibility to generate the controlled force distribution on each wing membrane. The wing flexibility, complex wing kinematics, and fast muscle actuation allow these creatures to change the body configuration within a few tens of milliseconds. These characteristics are crucial to the unrivaled agility of bats and copying them can potentially transform the state-of-the-art aerial drone design.