The invention is a robotic bird that uses flapping flight for lift and propulsion. The bird has a body, two wings, tail and head with a beak in addition to on-board electronics and batteries. Each wing is controlled separately by four motors. One motor controls the flapping, one the angle of attack (wing tilt), one the degree of morphing and folding of the wing and one the horizontal motion of the wing. The tail is controlled by three servomotors, one for up and down motion, one for tilting and one for spreading the tail feathers. Thus, the bird has 11 degrees of freedom in total in its wings and tail. This design allows the use of evolutionary methods for teaching the bird to fly in a much more efficient way than has previously been possible.

Gear for a flapping wing aircraft, having a gearwheel support, on which a gear-wheel is mounted so as to be rotatably movable about a gearwheel axis, which gearwheel is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to a crankshaft, which has a central section extending coaxially to the gearwheel axis and end regions adjoining the central section on both sides, the end regions each delimiting an angle between 0 degrees and 90 degrees with the central section and engage in a guide slot of an associated joint part which is mounted pivotably movable about a pivot axis on a joint support which is connected to the gearwheel support and which is mounted pivotably movable about a respective support axis on the gearwheel support wherein the joint supports are connected to a coupling strut and wherein an actuator, which is motion-coupled to the coupling strut, is arranged on the gearwheel support.

Gear for a flapping wing aircraft, having a gearwheel support, on which a gear-wheel is mounted so as to be rotatably movable about a gearwheel axis, which gearwheel is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to a crankshaft, which has a central section extending coaxially to the gearwheel axis and end regions adjoining the central section on both sides, the end regions each delimiting an angle between 0 degrees and 90 degrees with the central section and engage in a guide slot of an associated joint part which is mounted pivotably movable about a pivot axis on a joint support which is connected to the gearwheel support and which is mounted pivotably movable about a respective support axis on the gearwheel support wherein the joint supports are connected to a coupling strut and wherein an actuator, which is motion-coupled to the coupling strut, is arranged on the gearwheel support.

A wing for use in a flapping wing aircraft, having a strut assembly including a main strut and a plurality of support struts each oriented at an angular interval between 30 degrees and 90 degrees with respect to the support strut, at least a section of the support struts having a front section, a connecting section adjacent thereto, and a rear section adjacent thereto, and wherein each of said support struts is secured to said main strut by said connecting section, and further having a group of planking members made of a resilient and dimensionally stable sheet material and connected to said strut assembly.

An aerial robot system may include an aerial robot having an airframe, a piezo actuator, a wing connected to the piezo actuator, and a photovoltaic cell. The system may further include a laser source configured to emit a laser beam oriented toward the photovoltaic cell for conversion by the photovoltaic cell into electrical energy. The aerial robot may further include a boost converter connected to the photovoltaic cell and configured to raise a voltage level of the electrical energy, and a signal generator connected to the boost converter and configured to generate an alternating signal. The piezo actuator is connected to the signal generator to move according to the alternating signal to cause the wing to move in a flapping motion to generate aerodynamic force that moves the robot. Methods for manufacturing aerial robots and corresponding electronics are also disclosed herein.

An aerial robot system may include an aerial robot having an airframe, a piezo actuator, a wing connected to the piezo actuator, and a photovoltaic cell. The system may further include a laser source configured to emit a laser beam oriented toward the photovoltaic cell for conversion by the photovoltaic cell into electrical energy. The aerial robot may further include a boost converter connected to the photovoltaic cell and configured to raise a voltage level of the electrical energy, and a signal generator connected to the boost converter and configured to generate an alternating signal. The piezo actuator is connected to the signal generator to move according to the alternating signal to cause the wing to move in a flapping motion to generate aerodynamic force that moves the robot. Methods for manufacturing aerial robots and corresponding electronics are also disclosed herein.

The present invention relates to a rotary flapping-wing flight apparatus having rotary wings, which flap at both sides of a fuselage of the flight apparatus through dual rotation for simultaneously revolving and rotating in the circulation direction of the inner middle, center top, outer middle and center bottom ends thereof, almost stand upright to perform upward flapping to be lifted without fluid resistance when the wings are passing the inner middle end thereof, and are almost horizontally spread out to perform downward flapping while pushing fluid in the vertical downward direction, when the wings are passing the outer middle end thereof.

The present invention relates to a rotary flapping-wing flight apparatus having rotary wings, which flap at both sides of a fuselage of the flight apparatus through dual rotation for simultaneously revolving and rotating in the circulation direction of the inner middle, center top, outer middle and center bottom ends thereof, almost stand upright to perform upward flapping to be lifted without fluid resistance when the wings are passing the inner middle end thereof, and are almost horizontally spread out to perform downward flapping while pushing fluid in the vertical downward direction, when the wings are passing the outer middle end thereof.

The present disclosure relates to a flapping-wing aircraft, including a tail wing mechanism, which includes a tail rudder stabilizing plane including a first tail rudder stabilizing plane and a second tail rudder, stabilizing plane, wherein an opening is formed between the first tail rudder stabilizing plane and the second tail rudder stabilizing plane, wherein the opening faces a downward direction of the flapping-wing aircraft, and wherein an included angle of the opening is less than 180 degrees.

The present disclosure relates to a flapping-wing aircraft, including a tail wing mechanism, which includes a tail rudder stabilizing plane including a first tail rudder stabilizing plane and a second tail rudder, stabilizing plane, wherein an opening is formed between the first tail rudder stabilizing plane and the second tail rudder stabilizing plane, wherein the opening faces a downward direction of the flapping-wing aircraft, and wherein an included angle of the opening is less than 180 degrees.