Abstract: A physical model for a micro air vehicle with Flapping Rotary Wings (FRW) is investigated by measuring the wing kine-matics in trim conditions and computing the corresponding aerodynamic force using computational fluid dynamics. In order to capture the motion image and reconstruct the positions and orientations of the wing, the photogrammetric method is adopted and a method for automated recognition of the marked points is developed. The characteristics of the realistic wing kinematics are presented. The results show that the non-dimensional rotating speed is a linear function of non-dimensional flapping frequency regardless of the initial angles of attack. Moreover, the effects of wing kinematics on aerodynamic force production and the underlying mechanism are analyzed. The results show that the wing passive pitching caused by elastic deformation can sig-nificantly enhance lift production. The Strouhal number of the FRW is much higher than that of general flapping wings, indi-cating the stronger unsteadiness of flows in FRW.

Key words: bioinspired flapping rotary wing, computational fluid dynamics, wing kinematics measurement, aerodynamics, micro air vehicle