The DelFly Design, Aerodynamics, and Artificial Intelligence of a Flapping Wing Robot

Despite their tiny size, fruit flies are able to navigate, avoid obstacles and predators and find food or shelter. A first step towards this ultimate desire is the creation of a micro flapping wing robot that flies by itself. The challenges involved are considerable: the design and aerodynamics of flapping wings are still active areas of scientific research, while the artificial intelligence is subject to extreme limitations deriving from the few sensors and little processing on board.

The reader is first introduced to the topics most relevant to autonomously flying flapping wing robots: flapping-wing design, micro-electronics, aerodynamics and artificial intelligence. These topics are treated in the context of the "DelFly", a flapping wing robot designed at Delft University. The DelFly project started in 2005 and has ever since served as inspiration not only to many scientific flapping wing studies, but also to the design of flapping wing toys.

This book conveys the essential insights that lie behind successes such as the DelFly Micro, with its 3.07 gram and 10 cm wing span still the smallest flapping wing MAV in the world carrying a camera and the DelFly Explorer, the world's first flapping wing MAV able to fly completely autonomously in unknown environments.

The combination of introductions to the relevant fields, practical insights and scientific experiments from the DelFly project, make the book a must-read for all intrigued by flapping wing robots, be they students, researchers or engineers.