Design: 4 Wing
Definition: An ornithopter is simply an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings.
Description: In this project I use current materials and fabrication methods in order to expand the knowledge base around designing and building ornithopters. It is my hope that this knowledge can be used as a resource from hobbyists to research interested in biomimicry and flapping flight.
Presently information on making electronically powered ornithopters is kind of scarce so unless you are deep diving into ornithopter forums or scrubbing though videos at 0.25 speed clear information can be kind of difficult to come by.
I think this information could be used as a potential starting point that can be integrated into future work or projects. Which lets others pick up and iterate on the designs I left off.
Inspired by the flapping capabilities of insects the 3D printed components and specifically the wings of this design allow for quick and inexpensive manufacture
This 4 wing ornithopter functions based on an offset crank design which moves the sets of lightweight wings. The power of this ornithopter comes from a micro 3V 1200 rpm geared DC motor that the crank is attached to.
To simplify the manufacturing process this ornithopter was designed to be mostly 3D printed using minimal material for the wings, frame, rotator arms, and crank adapter.
My project was guided by a research paper by Charles Richter and Hod Lipson called “Untethered Hovering Flapping Flight of a 3D-Printed Mechanical Insect”. However while I use a similar design I research manufacturing this kind of ornithopter with a FDM (filament based) 3D printer, and made all the CAD models used in this project myself based off of the images that I was able to find in the paper.
The design of this ornithopter is inspired by some of the features or organisms found in nature like the flapping 4 wings of dragonflies, and the wings themselves following the shape of a maple seed pod.
