Wing twist

Angle of attack

Airfoil

Control (management)

Engineering

Aerospace engineering

Micro air vehicle

Wing

Wing configuration

Aerodynamics

Fixed wing

Computer science

Drag

Biomimetics

Wing loading

Lift-to-drag ratio

Artificial intelligence

Morphing

Control theory (sociology)

Aeronautics

Aerospace Science and Technology

The excellent flight ability of birds is closely related not only to the morphing skeleton structure that can cause large-scale geometrical changes of their wings but also to the discrete or discontinuous wing structure composed of many feathers. In this study, a bio-inspired morphing discrete wing inspired from a pigeon's wing structure was designed with bionic feathers, with the explicit aim of improving the aerodynamic performance of an unmanned aerial vehicle. The bio-inspired discrete wing structure, controlled by a morphing skeleton structure, can actively morph into different swept-wing configurations similar to the wing postures of the pigeon and maintain a discrete wing surface similar to the pigeon wing surface at the same time. The results reveal that the bio-inspired morphing UAV can always maintain an optimal lift-to-drag ratio at three different Reynolds numbers utilizing the symmetrical wing morphing. The asymmetrical wing morphing can well achieve rolling control of the UAV. Furthermore, compared with a continuous wing surface structure, the bio-inspired discrete wing surface structure not only can achieve the induced drag reduction of the UAV through effectively decreasing the wing-tip vortex strength but also improve the lateral stability of the UAV.

Aerodynamic performance investigation on a morphing unmanned aerial vehicle with bio-inspired discrete wing structures