Similar to birds, the outermost part of the wing is equipped with artificial feathers that can be folded to actively change the surface of the wing. In this paper, we describe a novel wing morphing mechanism inspired by the folding mechanism of bird feathers ( figure 2). Similar to birds, the drone is equipped with a feathered wing that folds the outermost sections in order to modify the surface area and also control roll angle for turning. ( b) Prototype of the morphing wing drone described in this paper. The outermost feathers, known as primary flight feathers, significantly reduce the surface of the wing when folded. ( a) Bird wings are composed of flight feathers connected to an articulated skeleton. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no data in the literature regarding the influence of this type of wing morphing on aerodynamic properties. Another example is given by RoboSwift, a morphing wing based on discrete feather-like elements inspired by swift birds ( figure 1 c), which is able to fold its feathers backwards, thereby changing its wing area, sweep, slenderness and camber.
Despite a significant extension of the flight envelope, the slow dynamics of the sliding mechanism hinder the manoeuvrability of the aerial vehicle. Another example, the variable-span wing (VSW) shown in figure 1 b, uses two servomotors actuating an aluminium rack and pinion system that drives the extension/retraction of the outer wing. However, the pneumatic system used there is hardly scalable to an MAV. There are several examples of the discrete compositional approach, such as a telescopic wing whose surface can change up to 100%. It can achieve a maximum area change of 40% in 15 s, which is very slow for effectively changing the flight dynamics of a drone in cluttered environments. An example of the continuous elastic approach is given by the Morphing Flight-vehicle Experimental ( MFX-1) developed by NextGen ( figure 1 a): it features a scissor mechanism that affects span and sweep.
#Taylor swift weight gain morph skin#
The surface morphing vehicles that have reached sufficient maturity for flight tests fall in two design approaches: a continuous elastic skin supported by a mechanical structure and a rigid skin composed of several discrete elements. Therefore, despite extensive research in morphing technologies, only a few concepts have been experimentally assessed and only a small fraction have been successfully tested in flight. A third challenge is that the design and manufacturing complexity of morphing mechanisms make it extremely difficult to find the right balance between aerodynamic efficiency and weight overhead. Ailerons, for example, cannot be easily installed on variable-span wings and thus demand alternative solutions for roll control. A second challenge is that the mechanical constraints induced by wing morphing should not hinder platform control.
A first challenge is to create a morphing surface that can undergo significant shape change without compromising the aerodynamic properties at the different operating conditions. The design of a morphing MAV requires numerous challenges to be addressed. A wing with a morphing surface could adapt its aerial surface to optimize aerodynamic performance to specific flight situations. However, wings with a large surface are very sensitive to wind while, wings with a small surface generate less frictional drag allowing an aerial vehicle to fly faster and keep a constant forward ground speed in comparatively stronger headwinds. These MAVs should be highly manoeuvrable in order to rapidly change course with a small turn radius: for a given weight of the aerial vehicle, a small turn radius is obtained by maximizing the wing surface and the lift coefficient of the wing. This capability is particularly important for small drones, also known as micro air vehicles (MAVs), that can navigate in close proximity to obstacles.
#Taylor swift weight gain morph full#
Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs.Morphing wings that change the shape and configuration of an aircraft can expand the flight capabilities of a flying vehicle to fulfil opposing requirements. Message SolrCore 'topicpages' is not available due to init failure: Error opening new searcherĭescription The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.Įxception .$RemoteSolrException: SolrCore 'topicpages' is not available due to init failure: Error opening new searcher HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error HTTP Status 500 – Internal Server Error