Longitudinal Actuated Abdomen Control for Energy Efficient Flight of Insects

Titilayo Ogunwa, Blake McIvor, Nurkhairunisa Awang Jumat, Ermira Abdullah and Javaan Chahl
Additional contact information
Titilayo Ogunwa: UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5095, Australia
Blake McIvor: UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5095, Australia
Nurkhairunisa Awang Jumat: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
Ermira Abdullah: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
Javaan Chahl: UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5095, Australia

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-22

Abstract: The actuated abdomens of insects such as dragonflies have long been suggested to play a role in optimisation and control of flight. We have examined the effect of this type of actuation in the simplified case of a small fixed wing aircraft to determine whether energetic advantages exist in normal flight when compared to the cost of actuation using aerodynamic control surfaces. We explore the benefits the abdomen/tail might provide to balance level flight against trim changes. We also consider the transient advantage of using alternative longitudinal control effectors in a pull up flight maneuver. Results show that the articulated abdomen significantly reduces energy consumption and increase performance in isolated manoeuvres. The results also indicate a design feature that could be incorporated into small unmanned aircraft under particular circumstances. We aim to highlight behaviours that would increase flight efficiency to inform designers of micro aerial vehicles and to aid the analysis of insect flight behaviour and energetics.

Keywords: aircraft; inertial; dragonfly; insect; biological inspiration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/20/5480/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/20/5480/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:20:p:5480-:d:431676

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().