Development and performance evaluation of a piezoceramic coated flapping wing

Flapping wing applications require actuators that are light in weight and can produce large displacements. A piezoceramic coated flapping wing without any other amplification mechanism is developed for micro and nano aerial vehicles. The dragonfly wing shaped structure with the piezoceramic coating produced a lift of 0.99 mN which was 1.3 times the mass of the wing. The results obtained from the experiments to mimic the kinematic motions of the wing using the coated piezoceramic actuator are also reported. (paper)