Design of a Two-Degree of Freedom Beating Machine

Abstract

We propose a new beating machine based on a dual cam and lever mechanism to operate flapping and torsion motions of a dragonfly wing. The beating machine was designed according to the time dependent variation in flapping angle and in torsion angle of a free flight dragonfly. Our experiment results show that the variations in flapping angle and in torsion angle of a wing on beating machine agree well with those of a real free flight dragonfly wing, confirming that our beating machine is available for studying the beating performance. We then use the beating machine to study the aerodynamic force and inertia affecting on the wing by comparing the flapping angle and torsion angle under the normal and vacuum conditions.