I am just about to start my second year of a two part MSc in Computing Science. I have chosen as my thesis to build a ornithopter test bed. The robot consists of a pair of wings, and load cells to measure thrust and lift. (A similar model has been produced by Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University in Sweden). The control of each wing is achieved utilising a Neural network, the network should, over time 'learn' the most efficient motion control to provide desired lift and thrust profiles.
The conceptual mechanical design is almost complete, however my major sticking point at the moment relates to the wing design more specifically its maximum area. I was hoping someone might be able to help or point me in the right direction.
The wing has to flap through a 180-degree angle, the motors I’ve chosen to do this are off the shelf RC servomotors. Two motors are used to control the pitch of each wing and each motor can provide a maximum rotational speed of 60 degrees/0.06 sec, with the torque rated at 131 oz-inch. The wing is roughly a rectangle whose span is four times its chord (although this ratio is likely to change). So the question is given the above motor performance what is the maximum wing size I can have? and how can you calculate this?
Many thanks