Title :
Steel-based bionic actuators for flapping microair-vehicles
Author :
Lung-Jieh Yang ; Dung-Lin Jan ; Wei-Chung Lin
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. & Electromech. Eng., Tamkang Univ., Tamsui, Taiwan
Abstract :
Presented is an animation of the sporangial motion for making bionic tail actuators of flapping microair-vehicles regarding energy saving. A SUS-304 steel foil 40 μm thick is used as the working substrate. The actuation area of the 40-50 comb-shaped cantilevers is designed to have maximum actuating angle change around the order of several degrees. An Nd-YAG laser cutting is performed to machine the surface tension-driven actuator. Surface modification including parylene coating and oxygen plasma treatment are added to enlarge the actuation stroke angle by up to 10°-12° for practical usage in flight control.
Keywords :
actuators; aerospace control; aluminium compounds; biocybernetics; coating techniques; laser beam cutting; neodymium; space vehicles; steel; yttrium compounds; Nd-YAG; SUS-304 steel foil; actuation stroke angle; bionic tail actuators; comb-shaped cantilevers; energy saving; flapping microair-vehicles; flight control; laser cutting; oxygen plasma treatment; parylene coating; size 40 mum; sporangial motion; steel-based bionic actuators; surface modihcation; surface tension-driven actuator; working substrate;
Journal_Title :
Micro & Nano Letters, IET
DOI :
10.1049/mnl.2013.0316
