Titanium-alloy MEMS wing technology for a micro aerial vehicle application

In this paper, we present the first MEMS-based wing technology that we deve loped using titanium-alloy metal (Ti-6Al-4V) as wingframe and poly-monochlo ro-paua-xylylene (parylene-C) as wing membrane. With this new MEMS wing tec hnology, we are able to produce light, but robust 3-D wings, optimized to u tilize the flow separation to achieve a high lift coefficient as large as f ive times that of the fixed-wing aircraft. The use of MEMS technology enabl es systematic research in terms of repeatability, size control, and weight minimization of the wings. We also constructed a high quality low-speed win d tunnel with velocity uniformity of 0.5% and speeds from 1 to 10 m/s. We h ave tested and have studied the unsteady-state aerodynamics of various type s of MEMS-based and non MEMS-based wings. Finally, we built lightweight, pa lm-sized flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) with super capacitor-po wered and battery-powered transmission systems and have demonstrated succes sful free flights with flight duration ranges from 5 to 18 s. (C) 2001 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.