MAV Micro Air Vehicle Based on Organic Hummingbird Model. There is no more interesting bird than a humming bird. Some humming bird species migrate, 500 miles? Wow. Efficient little bird isnt it? Its wings move between 60-80 flap cycles per minute. We have produced a drawing for a little MAV humming bird and found a suitable motor. It spins 15,000 rpm. Check out this little Brushless Motor? http://www.aerospaceonline.com/content/pro...00A0C9B3BDF2%7d In our model we use a little motor live this with a small shaft on it in front of the wing spar. The shaft has an oval shape gear on it with no teeth. As the shaft spins the off center shape about the size of a dime touches the center of the flexible wing spar in the center. The wings are attached to this spar, which is a material, which has memory and as soon as it is pushed out it bounces back with elasticity, which means you get 15,000 flaps per minute. A gear reduction of 400:1 would give our design of this miniature bird the proper flying ability and it could travel at my desired speed. Having observed humming birds in hummingbird feeders and watching them dive bomb the bunnies in rabbit enclosures and cats in areas nearby their favorite nectar locals. They would feed on apples that would ferment, get drunk and do some really crazy stunt flying. It seemed like they could almost do what dragon flies do--hover in one place and then spin 180 degrees and fly off in the opposite direction. In our model we use various known aerodynamic methods to work through these issues. This is easily doable with control surfaces since the wings produce airflows. Using the Strouhal number we have calculated the speed of the motor and frequency of the flap cycle needed. The Strouhal number is amazing that the number falls in the same range for 42 species. The optimal point for movement through current whether air or water certainly would point out the highest propulsive efficiency. We can certainly see why the Universities, R & D people and military are all looking at this. We have done much studying on the ideas of an Organic Unmanned Vehicle or MAV matching what evolution has taught us. The depth of the wings is in proportion to the length and width of the wing is much of a factor in the heights that birds are able to achieve. An interesting documentary that often plays on the discovery channel called: "Winged Migration" by Jacques Perrin, director. Film crews followed bird migration through 40 countries, each of the 7 continents and all 4 seasons using everything from hot air balloons to gliders to get the best footage. This will give you good insight into the migratory process of birds and how they fly, close-up and personal. Having little insect sized machines or even bird-sized machines would be easy to ignore. I probably wouldn't ignore something like that if it flew by, but most people would. We should be looking at the flight patterns of hummingbirds as they are fascinating to watch. A small camera could be attached to the unit such as this one: http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2004-01-07-3 and it could be powered by a small Fuel Cell and battery, like the small ones being made for Cell Phones now. This was briefly discussed by President and CEO of Sprint at the CES show this week. A small MAV or electric humming bird could drop these like tiny cameras like bombs or bird droppings where they always land right side up, in the ground and they are on-site cameras which can be used for surveillance or perimeter security? And is this camera technology worthy of MAV picture taking? And in case you think this is too far out, think again, have you seen this yet? A miniature micro helicopter. http://pixelito.reference.be/#pictures Yes my friends this is all real. So what we are talking about is also very doable now. We can do it, we have all the parts and drawings. Regarding the MAV, UAV, OUV, etc. I understand that you may not understand what these are. UAV in an Ummanned Aerial vehicle, MAV is a Micro Air Vehicle and OUV we made up is now an Organic Unmanned vehicle. We are also getting a little unnerved by all these TLA- Three Letter Acronyms? It is difficult enough to keep up with all these mathematic symbols all these people keep inventing, but throwing in the TLAs too, makes for a very TLA- Tough Long Assignment? The way we see it we can maneuver our unit through anything or around any one. Is this possible? We believe it is. |
