Analysis of Energy Budget Characteristics of Three‐Segment Wings in Wind Gradient Dynamic Soaring

Wind gradient dynamic soaring enables bioinspired aerial vehicles to harvest environmental energy and extend endurance; yet quantitative comparisons remain scarce on how multisegment wing configurations translate, under identical control and wind field conditions, into differences in energy budget. To address this issue, we establish an S‐shaped dynamic soaring flight dynamics model driven by aerodynamic data. A two‐dimensional aerodynamic response surface in airspeed and angle of attack is constructed and embedded into the flight simulation. Under the same control law, identical initial conditions, and an identical logarithmic wind profile, we compare a two‐segment wing and a three‐segment wing in terms of net mechanical energy change per cycle, equivalent energy consumption rate, and a decomposition of wind energy input versus aerodynamic dissipation. Results show that the three‐segment wing maintains higher lift coefficient efficiency over the primary operating angle‐of‐attack range, yielding a 156% improvement in efficiency relative to the two‐segment wing. Under a representative wind gradient condition, the magnitude of the net energy deficit over one cycle is reduced by 25.83% for the three‐segment wing, bringing the system closer to the threshold for net positive energy. Energy decomposition indicates that wind energy input is comparable between the two configurations, and the advantage of the three‐segment wing is dominated by lower aerodynamic energy loss. These findings provide controlled comparative evidence of how the aerodynamic advantage of a three‐segment wing is translated into improved cycle‐scale energy performance in dynamic soaring, thereby supporting configuration‐oriented design of bio‐inspired flapping‐wing vehicles.