Hovering Flight of Insects with Damaged Wings

Insects flying with partially damaged wings is a common phenomenon in nature, requiring them to adjust their wing kinematics to adapt to imperfect flight conditions. In this paper, the effects of bilateral and unilateral wing damage of a hawkmoth-like model in hovering flight were investigated. The flexible wings were modeled by systems of rigid bars connected by torsional springs. A fluid–structure interaction co-simulation framework was used to couple the multibody dynamic solver for the bar–spring system and an aerodynamic solver based on the unsteady vortex-lattice method. The kinematic parameters at the wing base, which are used to drive the wing motion, were obtained by a gradient-based trim search algorithm. The analysis results have revealed that an insect may increase the flapping frequency and the sweep amplitude of its wing motion to compensate for lift reduction due to wing damage. In cases of unilateral damage, asymmetric modulation in the kinematics of the left and right wings was observed. The power analysis indicated that the elastic energy storage mechanism not only conserves energy but also reduces the power difference between the intact and damaged wings of an insect. These findings provide valuable insights for the design and development of insect-like micro air vehicles.