Design and Optimization of a Mechanism for Out of Plane Insect

Wing Like Motion With Twist

Sai K. Banala, Graduate Student, Sunil K. Agrawal, Ph.D., Professor,
Mechanical Systems Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
Email: agrawal@me.udel.edu
Abstract
A mechanism is presented that can generate insect wing like motion. This motion includes both
flapping out of the stroke plane in addition to twist of the wing. The mechanism has a single degreeof-freedom and employs a five bar mechanism in addition to an auxiliary four bar mechanism. The
parameters in the mechanism were optimized to generate a prescribed motion of the wing taken from a
hawk moth kinematic flight data. A scaled model of the mechanism was fabricated to verify practical
feasibility of the design. In future, we will miniaturize this mechanism on our flying bird prototypes.

Introduction

In the field of flying machines, a number of successful research have been conducted on fixed wing vehicles.
However, as one shrinks the size to micro flying machines, flapping wing designs score over their fixed wing
counterparts. This is evident from the dextrous flying behaviors of large number of small birds and insects.
Insects mostly fly in the realm of low Reynolds number, where aerodynamic forces dominate over inertial
forces. In such conditions, flapping wing micro air vehicles can generate more lift and thrust resulting in
high maneuverability.
It is well known that flapping motion of wings for various birds and insects are different. Even for a
particular bird or insect, the shape and motion of the wing depends on the speed of flight. This flapping
motion can be approximately confined to a plane called stroke plane [1]. Figure 1 shows both the stroke
and mid-sagittal planes of an insect. In this figure, P is the tip of wing and Q is its projection on the stroke
plane. Then is the angle PO1 Q and is the angle between O1 Q and X1 axis. The wing also has twist
along its axis which varies with time.

Figure 1: WING TIP PATH, STROKE AND SAGITTAL PLANES OF AN INSECT.

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Figure 2: WING TIP PATH AND WING CROSS SECTION OF A FLY IN SAGITTAL PLANE AT
VARIOUS INSTANTS, AS SEEN FROM POSITIVE Z-AXIS [8].
Insect flight and the anatomy has been studied extensively ( [2] [3] [4] [5]) using high speed cameras.
Several attempts were made to mimic an insect wing motion [3], but almost always the out of stroke plane
motion has been completely ignored. Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) project at U C Berkeley attempts
to generate flapping and rotation of wing using two four bar mechanisms, however it does not address out of
stroke plane motion [6]. Flapping wing machines built at University of Delaware [7] employ a single degree
of freedom four bar mechanism to generate flapping and rely on structural felxibility to twist the wings.
These too flap only in the stroke plane.
In this paper, we present a mechanism to generate out of plane flapping and twist of the wing without
relying on structural flexibility of the wing. The idea in using this mechanism solution is that we can achieve
more control on the kinematics by suitably adjusting the parameters of the mechanism. By including out
of stroke plane flapping we imitate the nature more closely and we believe this improves the performance of
the flight. Our aim here is to see how close we can imitate a real wing motion data using our mechanism.
An insect wing structure is flexible giving it infinitely many degrees-of-freedom, in principle.
The most common form of out of stroke plane motion of an insect wing is the figure of eight motion
shown in Fig. 2 [8]. In this motion, the tip of a wing traces a curve in the shape of a figure of eight. The
actual shape of this curve varies with kind of insect and with flight speeds.

Our Proposed Mechanism

The design of this mechanism has been inspired by the motion of oars of a boat and the way two harmonics
can generate Lissajous figures. The wing mechanism is selected to consist of a planar mechanism in midsagittal plane of the insect body, as shown in Fig. 3, and two wings pivoted equidistant on either side of this
plane at H1 and H2 , shown in Fig. 4. A 3D view of the entire mechanism is shown in Fig. 5.
In the planar mechanism shown in Fig. 3, all joints are revolute. It can be viewed as a combination of a
5-bar mechanism A-B-C-D-E-A and a 4-bar mechanism B-F-G-C-B. The link AF is a single rigid link. The
role of 5-bar mechanism is to generate the required wing-tip path, and the 4-bar mechanism generates the
twist in the wing.
The 5-bar mechanism is actuated using two cranks, AB and ED. Points A and E are fixed in the frame of
insect thorax. Let the angle made by AB and ED to the horizontal be 1 and 2 respectively. If 1 and 2
are actuated independently, we get a 2-degree-of-freedom mechanism, but if 2 is made to be a function of
1 , using gear train or pulley belt system, we get a single degree-of-freedom mechanism. We desire a single
degree of freedom system to simplify actuation.
The member I1 I2 in Fig. 5, passes through the revolute joint at point C and always remains perpendicular
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Figure 3: MECHANISM IN MID-SAGITTAL PLANE OF THE INSECT.

Figure 4: MECHANISM IN FRONT VIEW. WINGS ON EITHER SIDE OF MID-SAGITTAL PLANE

ARE ALSO SHOWN.

Figure 5: 3D VIEW OF ENTIRE MECHANISM.

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Figure 6: MODEL OF THE FLAPPING WING ROBOT.

Figure 7: CLOSE UP VIEW OF THE MECHANISM.

to the mid-sagittal plane of the insect. The member I1 I2 is also rigidly attached to the member GC. The
two wings are held using two joints at points H1 and H2 fixed in the insect frame. The joints at H1 and H2
are universal joints, but they also allow rotation of wing along their axes, providing 3 degree-of-freedom of
orientation. The joints at I1 and I2 are universal joints. Since the distance I1 H1 and I2 H2 does not remain
constant, it can be achieved by using a telescopic joint in the member between them.
A scaled model of the flapping wing robot with the described mechanism was fabricated to verify its
performance, its wing tip path was recorded and verified to be a figure-of-eight like motion and also made
sure that we get substantial wing twist. Fig. 6 shows the photograph of the model with its wings flapping,
note the blurred ends of the wings. Figure 7 shows a close up view of the mechanism. Note that in the
model, points I1 , C and I2 are collapsed into a single point C. Instead of using telescopic joint between I1 H1
and I2 H2 we allowed the wings to pass through the points H1 and H2 respectively for simplicity. This was
achieved by using eye-bolts at H1 and H2 .

Forward Kinematics

Kinamatics of this mechanism is explained in detail in paper [9]. Fig 8 shows wing tip path and wing twist
at various location on the wing path. This figure is plotted in the bird reference frame shown in Figure
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Figure 8: WING TIP PATH AND TWIST OBTAINED FROM FORWARD KINEMATICS. AS SEEN
FROM POSITIVE Z-AXIS.
Table 1: PARAMETERS OF THE MECHANISM
2 = 2 1
GC = 2 BF
AB = 15 mm
BD = 60 mm
FG = 60 mm

AB = 4 DE
1 = 1 rad/sec
BF = 5 mm
CD = 57 mm

3. Parameters used for plotting this data are shown in Table 1, these parameters are chosen based on the
model. This generated wing tip path is quite similar to the one shown in Fig. 2. The trend in variations of
wing twist angle is also similar. In this figure, we can see that the stroke plane is almost at an angle of 45
with X-axis. So, we choose = 45 , the angle stroke plane makes with X-axis.
Once the stroke plane is chosen, the spherical coordinates of wing ( flap angle in stroke plane, angle
made by wing axis with stroke plane, twist or rotation in the wing) in the reference frame attached to
stroke plane (X1 , Y1 , Z1 ) can be found using coordinate transformations.
The desired outcome of this kinamatics is to determine wing orientations and wing twist as a function of
input angle 1 , so that the design parameters could be optimized with the existing data of a real insect.

Optimization

In the section on forward kinematics, wing tip path and twist angles were determined as a function of input
to the mechanism. However, our goal is to imitate an insect wing motion by copying its wing tip path and
wing twist patterns. The wing tip orientation and the twist data for optimization has been taken from an
experiment conducted on a hawk moth [10]. This data is availible for flight speeds of 0 m/s 0.9 m/s and
2.1 m/s. Hence, the optimization was carried out for these three speeds seperately to obtain three sets of
optimized parameters.
The optimization of wing tip orientation and twist were done separately. First the 5 bar mechanism AB-C-D-E-A is optimized to generate specified wing tip orientation. Then, the 4 bar mechanism B-F-G-C-B
is optimized for wing twist angle. Wing tip path can be obtained from wing tip orientation easily using
trignometry, as the wing length is constant.
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Table 2: RESULTS OF OPTIMIZATION. ALL LENGTH UNITS IN MM AND ANGLES IN RADIANS.

Parameters
lab
lbc
lcd
lde
lh3
1
2
lbf
lf g
lgc
3
f1
f2

0 m/s
21.2
57.9
60.9
2.00
18.4
0.469
-3.14
19.1
50.2
75.8
0.848
14.9
18.5

0.9 m/s
15.3
55.7
61.9
2.00
14.4
0.436
-0.633
25.4
44.6
67.9
0.936
7.00
17.9

2.1 m/s
12.3
53.9
62.6
2.00
11.9
0.238
-3.14
25.2
40.1
52.3
0.915
8.87
18.1

The parameters q1 chosen for optimization are the lengths of members AB, BC, CD, DE, distance of
point H1 from mid-sagittal plane (lh3 ) , initial phase 1 of the input angle 1 and the phase difference 2
between 1 and 2 .
Initial phases 1 and 2 gives us freedom to set any initial values to the angles 1 and 2 at time t = 0.
q1 = [lab , lbc , lcd , lde , lh3 , 1 , 2 ]T

(1)

Since the wing tip path is a function of angles and , the sum of squares of errors in these angles are taken
as the objective function to be minimized.
f1 (q1 ) =

n
X

((q1 , k) e (k)) +

n
X

((q, k) e (k))2 ,

(2)

k=0

k=0

where e and e are angles from the reference curve in the experiment. The summation is carried over one
flapping cycle.
For optimization of the wing twist, the parameters are the lengths of the members BF, FG, GC and
phase difference 3 between the cross secion of the wing and the member GC. Here too, 3 gives us freedom
to set any initial value to twist angle at time t = 0.
q2 = [lbf , lf g , lgc , 3 ]T

(3)

The objective function for the optimization is,

f2 (q2 ) =

n
X

((q2 , k) e (k))2

(4)

k=0

The optimization is performed by using least square non-linear fitting routine of matlab lsqnonlin.
Each set of parameters correspond to a particular wing motion pattern. To change this pattern, we need
to change these parameters. But these parameters, once fixed, cannot be changed in flight, unless additional
actuaters are used. Note that these parameters are not related to flight control mechanisms like rudders and
ailerons.

Results

Figure 9 shows the optimized wing tip paths for three flight speeds, as seen from X1 axis. The dotted line is
the specified path and solid line is the optimized path. In that figure, the wing tip paths for speeds 0 m/s
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Figure 9: WING TIP PATH FOR THREE FLIGHT SPEEDS. SOLID: OPTIMIZED, DOTTED: REFERENCE.

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Figure 10: WING TWIST FOR THREE FLIGHT SPEEDS. SOLID: OPTIMIZED, DOTTED: REFERENCE.

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and 0.9 m/s are not figures of eight, they have only one loop, how ever, for speed 2.1 m/s the wing tip path
has the shape of figure of eight. In all three figures, the optimized path is close to the reference path and
correctly generates the number of loops. Also note that the plots are almost horizontal, as the stroke plane
is aligned with Z1 = 0 plane, which implies that the value of was correctly chosen as 45 .
Figure 10 shows the wing twist at various instants. The dotted line is the specified data and solid line is
the optimized twist. In all the three cases, the twist variation is almost similar and is close to the specified
values. Table 2 lists the optimized set of parameters.

Conclusion

A compound mechanism consisting of a 5-bar mechanism and a 4-bar mechanism was developed to mimic
an insect wing motion. This pattern includes out of stroke plane motion and time varying twist in the
wing. A scaled up model was built to observe its performance which appears very promising. To mimic an
insects wing flapping motion more closely, data from hawk moth was used to optimize the parameters of
the mechanism. The wing flapping pattern after optimization was close to the reference motion of the hawk
moth. In future, we will miniaturize this mechanism on our flying bird prototypes.

Acknowledgment
This work is being supported by the AFRL/MNK Grant bearing award number F08630-03-C-0195.

Nomenclature
luv Distance between points U and V.
6 UVAngle made by the line segment UV with positive X - axis.
6 UVWAngle contained in three points U,V and W.

References
[1] Ellington, C. P., 1984. The aerodynamics of hovering insect flight. iii kinematics. Phil. Trans. Roy.
Soc. Lond., 305 (1122) , pp. 4178.
[2] Ellington, C. P., 1984. The aerodynamics of hovering insect flight. iv lift and power requirements.
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., 305 (1122) , pp. 79113.
[3] Mueller, T. J., and DeLaurier, J. D., 2003. Aerodynamics of small vehicles. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech.,
35 (200) , pp. 89111.
[4] Robert, D., 2002. The Biomechanics of Insect Flight: Form, Function, Evolution, vol. 35. Princeton
University Press.
[5] Jones, K. D., and Platzer, M. F., 1999. An experimental and numerical investigation of a flapping
wing propulsion. 37th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting AIAA paper .
[6] Yan, J., Wood, R. J., Avadhanula, S., Sitti, M., and Fearing, R. S., 2001. Towards flapping wing control
for a micromechanical flying insect. In Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation, vol. 4, pp. 39013908.
[7] Madangopal, R., Khan, Z. A., and Agrawal, S. K., 2004. Energetics based design of small flapping
wing air vehicles. In Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, vol. 3,
pp. 23672372.
[8] Dalton, S., 1977. The Miracle of Flight. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
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[9] Banala, S. K., Agrawal, S. K., Karakaya, Y., McIntosh, S., and Khan, Z., 2004. Design and optimization
of a mechanism for out of plane insect wing like motion with twist. In ASME Conference, International
Design Engineering and Technical Conferences.
[10] Willmott, A. P., and Ellington, C. P., 1997. The mechanics of flight in the hawkmoth manduca sexta.
Journal of Experimental Biology (200) , pp. 27052722.

List of Tables
1
2

PARAMETERS OF THE MECHANISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RESULTS OF OPTIMIZATION. ALL LENGTH UNITS IN MM AND ANGLES IN RADIANS.

5
6

List of Figures
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

WING TIP PATH, STROKE AND SAGITTAL PLANES OF AN INSECT. . . . . . . . . . .

WING TIP PATH AND WING CROSS SECTION OF A FLY IN SAGITTAL PLANE AT
VARIOUS INSTANTS, AS SEEN FROM POSITIVE Z-AXIS [8]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MECHANISM IN MID-SAGITTAL PLANE OF THE INSECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MECHANISM IN FRONT VIEW. WINGS ON EITHER SIDE OF MID-SAGITTAL PLANE
ARE ALSO SHOWN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3D VIEW OF ENTIRE MECHANISM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MODEL OF THE FLAPPING WING ROBOT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CLOSE UP VIEW OF THE MECHANISM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WING TIP PATH AND TWIST OBTAINED FROM FORWARD KINEMATICS. AS SEEN
FROM POSITIVE Z-AXIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WING TIP PATH FOR THREE FLIGHT SPEEDS. SOLID: OPTIMIZED, DOTTED: REFERENCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WING TWIST FOR THREE FLIGHT SPEEDS. SOLID: OPTIMIZED, DOTTED: REFERENCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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