Welcome to the home page of Team

Welcome to the home page of Flapping Systems Design of the Pennsylvania State University

The Team

Jason Freeman Jeremiah Chamberlin

Sean Spollen Tom Moran

Sarah Wick

Mission Statement

Final project report.

The final report should provide complete documentation of the analysis, design and build process. A history of what other groups should be included. A brief discussion of other attempts at this project from other sources should be included. A detailed description of the strategy the team used, and why that strategy was selected should be included. An “end of the project” evaluation of that strategy should be presented. The project budget should be shown with detailed description of key spending decisions. The project schedule should be shown with detailed description of how the schedule was managed and what decisions were made to change schedule along the way. Complete engineering analysis of all mechanical and electrical design must be included with the basis for the analysis. All drawings, diagrams, and photographs associated with the project must be included with appropriate labels and descriptions. A detailed description of how the final prototype works should be at the core of this report. A section on the evaluation of the working prototype and how well it met the original objectives along with suggestions for future improvements must be included. A one page biography of each team member along with their specific contributions should be included. A detailed section on lessons learn from the project must be included.

Working prototype

The working prototype should be able to move a scaled generic wing in such a way that the wing tip describes an elliptical pattern and such that the angle of attack of the wing is variable and a function of the location of the wing tip in the pattern. It is highly desirable, but not required, to also have the wing tip move in a “figure eight” pattern with the angle of attack a function of location within the pattern. The elliptical patterns should be variable and controllable in the two axes that describes them. The angle of attack as a function of location should also be variable and controllable. The final design should at least in part be modeled after a bird or insect wing pattern and movements. The actual prototype wing does not need to be modeled after a bird or insect wing other than its overall planform and scaled weight. Although the final protoype should resemble some type of bird or insect wing, it does not need to be built at a scale of 1:1. If a different scale is selected, then the final prototype must conform to proper scaling laws of weight, speed, inertia, and Reynolds number. As acceptance of the working ability of the final prototype, a demonstration should be performed for the project sponsor that clearly shows the variability and controllability of the system. It is suggested that this demonstration include stroboscopic techniques to assist in the visualization of the performance of the final prototype. The final prototype should be constructed of materials that will ensure longevity of the system and should not contain any hazardous materials.

Progress Reports

Progress reports should be delivered no less than once a week, on an agreed to day, by email to the project sponsor. The report should include documentation of progress on research, design and fabrication of the project. A weekly review of budget status should include any new expenses and projected budget outcome. A weekly review of schedule and any changes including project outcome must be included. The progress report should detail what has been done and who has done it. Any significant photographs should be included. A section detailing what is going well, what is not going well, and where any help is needed must be included. The progress report should include any minutes from team meetings held during the week.

The Test Setup

In the above picture, you can see the three 10" subwoofers, box enclosure, amplifier, and function generator. This simple test was used to determine the displacement of the speakers ran at 30 Hz, another test was ran overnight for 10 hours to ensure the epoxy could hold our speaker mounts to the vibrating speakers. Both tests yielded satisfactory results, and the speaker concept was validated prior to secondary linkage creation.

Final Design

The above two pictures illustrate the final design of the prototype. The picture on the left shows the secondary linkages that were created so as to maximize the displacement of the speaker onto the spar.

Inputs From .wav Editor

As you can see in the above image, speakers controlling the spar in the x and y directions are given a 30 Hz square wave, with a 90 degree offset between the two. These specific waves were given to the speakers to create the elliptical pattern of the spar. Wav files were decided upon, because they were the only feasible way to control the third channel of output, driving the speaker that will control rotation.

Our Open Control Loop

The Future...

Our design will be used in Boeing's model wind tunnel, to investigate flow patterns and forces upon the wing.

Other possible ways of controlling the apparatus can be researched, including possible newer versions of Labview and Matlab which will be able to output 3 channels to simple computer sound cards.

If the concept is proven to work in the model wind tunnel, a similar, larger design of the prototype can be created to be used in the full size wind tunnel.