Abdominal Undulation with Compliant Mechanism Improves Flight Performance of Biomimetic Robotic Butterfly

Abstract-- This paper presents the design, modeling, and experimental validation of a biomimetic robotic butterfly (BRB) that integrates a compliant mechanism to achieve coupled wing-abdomen motion. Drawing inspiration from the natural flight dynamics of butterflies, a theoretical model is developed to investigate the impact of abdominal undulation on flight performance. To validate the model, motion capture experiments are conducted on three configurations: a BRB without an abdomen, with a fixed abdomen, and with an undulating abdomen. Recently, increasing attention has I. Flapping-wing aerial vehicles (FWAVs) have demonstrated Because the butterfly wings attached to the thorax have a advantages in maneuverability, energy efficiency, and adaptability, relatively high moment of inertia, aerodynamic and inertial making them ideal for potential applications such forces cause the thorax to pitch in sync with the wingbeats. Over past decades, significant forward flight, the abdomen swings in response to these progress has been made in designing bio-inspired FWAVs thoracic oscillations [13], [14], [15].