Design and Manufacture of the Wing Folding Mechanism for a Bioinspired Ornithopter

This paper presents a folding mechanism for ornithopter's wings. The mechanism has been implemented using rods and joints to replicate wing performance of animal flight. In this sense, bio-inspiration has been the baseline of the design but hard requirements as lightweight and integration with the current platform have also been considered. The final specifications of volume ratio folded/unfolded of 1/3 and additional mass < 100 g/wing with respect to the current structure, make this concept quite promising. Moreover, unlike most of the existent creations, it is intended to allow control of the folding while perching. Bench experiments demonstrate its performance and compatibility with the prototype platform.