Challenges for micro-scale flapping-wing micro air vehicles

The challenges for successful flight of insect-scale micro air vehicles encompass basic questions of fabrication, design, propulsion, actuation, control, and power - topics that have in general been answered for larger aircraft. When developing a flying robot on the scale of flies and bees, all hardware must be developed from scratch as there are no "off-the-shelf" sensors, actuators, or microcontrollers that can satisfy the extreme mass and power limitations imposed by such vehicles. Similar challenges exist for fabrication and assembly of the structural and aeromechanical components of insect-scale micro air vehicles that neither macro-scale techniques nor MEMS can adequately solve. With these challenges in mind, this paper presents progress in the essential technologies for micro-scale flapping-wing robots.