Bio Inspired Humming Bird
Tanuj Agrawal, Student
Karthik Udaya Shet, Student
Abstract—this research is aimed at
developing a humming bird inspired Micro
UAV and explore its applications in defense
and surveillance sectors.
Keywords—bioinspired, drone, humming
bird, biomimetic
I. INTRODUCTION
Robotic engineering inspired by biology—
biomimetic—has many potential applications:
robot snakes can be used for rescue operations in
disasters, snake-like endoscopes can be used in
medical diagnosis, and artificial muscles can
replace damaged muscles to recover the motor
functions of human limbs. Conversely, the
application of robotics technology to our
understanding of biological systems and behaviors
—bio-robotic modeling and analysis—provides
unique research opportunities: robotic
manipulation technology with optical tweezers
can be used to study the cell mechanics of human
red blood cells, a surface electromyography
sensing system can help us identify the relation
between muscle forces and hand movements, and
mathematical models of brain circuitry may help
us understand how the cerebellum achieves
movement control. Another such application is
Humming Bird, a hovering drone which can
change the way we look at helicopters and drone
surveillance techniques.
It’s hard to get a good look at hummingbirds’
wings, given that they’re normally beating so fast
they’re a blur. But compared to wings in the
human-made world—think helicopters—the birds’
feathered appendages are relatively short and
stubby, characteristics that help these expert fliers
hover. We could think in the direction that if short
wings help hummingbirds, they might help drones
become more agile, too.
II.DESIGN PLANNING AND ANALYSIS
Hummingbird wings are generally 4 times as long
as they were wide were the best at generating the
small tornado of air needed to keep the bird
hovering when taking sharp turns. This is short
compared to helicopter wings (which tend to be 10
times as long as they are wide), but comparable to
the flappers on bats, other birds, and insects.
Hummingbirds and insects have more than wing
length in common. Hummingbird flight technique
is more similar to that of insects than other birds:
They generate lift on both the upstroke and
downstroke.
Designing the flaps and placing the actuators for
the flaps will be carried out in CATIA or Fusion
360 software using the above facts about the flap
sizes. Based on the frequency of the flap
movements of the hummingbird which is
generally 22 Hz, the type of actuator can be
decided. The cameras and wiring for surveillance
can then be placed at the particular location along
the body of the MUAV.
Simulation and analysis will be carried out using
ANSYS 18.2 Workbench. The design needs to be
checked for response to turbulent winds and
critical pressure for the UAV.
Controlling the humming bird is another task at
hand based on either making it an autonomous
system or complete manual control. In either case
the mathematical model will be based on 2
degrees of freedom pitch control and roll control.
Hovering flight stability, mathematical modelling,
control and flight simulation, flapping mechanism
and control mechanisms together would yield a
proper micro control
air vehicle.
A hummingbird developed by DARPA

For purposes of flight stability and controllability
study we only assume longitudinal flight. The
equations of motion can be further simplified by
linearization around the hovering flight conditions
considering only averaged aerodynamic forces
throughout one wingbeat.
The stability of the linearized system can be
resolved by studying the eigenvalues and
eigenvectors of the system matrix with stability
derivatives (derivatives of cycle-averaged wing
forces with respect to respective velocities).
The pitch and roll torque moments are obtained by
the so-called wing twist modulation which was
pioneered in the Nano Hummingbird. A
dissymmetry between the left and right wing will
produce a roll moment, and a dissymmetry
between the front and back half strokes will
produce a pitch moment.
Basic design mechanism of COLIBRI
The wings have only a single degree of freedom
(flapping) and the wing camber is obtained
passively. They are made of a stiffened membrane
and have two sleeves, one on the leading edge and
the other one on the root edge. The sleeves
accommodate the leading edge bar which is used
for flapping and the root edge bar which is
orthogonal to the leading edge bar in neutral
position.
Basic dynamic model
Keeping all of the aforementioned factors and
methods in mind, the design and mechanism of
the MUAV will be designed and tested for
durability and the parts can be made using
additive manufacturing technology and some
elements of the drone can be made using soft
robotics.
A dedicated flight control board would be set up
in the micro UAV for the control of roll, pitch,
hovering, pushing through sharp bends etc.
III ANALYSIS
To test the mechanism and the forward
kinematics, we use Live Script in MATLAB and
are able to achieve an animation of the forward
kinematics. We simplify the COLIBRI design by
reducing the number of links required to actuate
the flapping motion of the micro UAV.
The results can be seen here. Also the code
developed for the same is scripted below.
MATLAB Code:
lengths = [0.006 0.02 0.015 0.02 0.015];
theta1 = (45*pi/180):0.1:(450*pi/180);
d = [0.15 0.21].*0.1; d_l = [-0.15 0.21].*0.1;
wing = 0.033;
A_r = -2*d(1)*lengths(3) +
2*lengths(1)*lengths(3).*cos(theta1);
B_r = -2*d(2)*lengths(3) +
2*lengths(1)*lengths(3).*sin(theta1);
C_r = d(1)^2+d(2)^2+lengths(1)^2+lengths(3)^2-
lengths(2)^2-...
2*lengths(1).*(d(2).*sin(theta1)+d(1).*cos(theta1));
A_l = 2*lengths(1)*lengths(5).*cos(theta1) -
2*lengths(5)*d_l(1);
B_l = 2*lengths(1)*lengths(5).*sin(theta1) -
2*lengths(5)*d_l(2);
C_l = d_l(1)^2+d_l(2)^2+lengths(5)^2+lengths(1)^2-
lengths(4)^2-...
2*lengths(1).*(d_l(1).*cos(theta1)+d_l(2).*sin(theta1));
theta3 = 2*atan2(-B_r-sqrt(B_r.^2-C_r.^2+A_r.^2),C_r-A_r);
theta2 = atan2(d(2)-lengths(3).*sin(theta3)-
lengths(1).*sin(theta1),...
d(1)-lengths(3).*cos(theta3)-lengths(1).*cos(theta1));
theta5 = 2*atan2(-B_l+sqrt(B_l.^2-C_l.^2+A_l.^2),C_l-A_l);
theta4 = atan2(d_l(2)-lengths(5).*sin(theta5)-
lengths(1).*sin(theta1),...
d_l(1)-lengths(5).*cos(theta5)-lengths(1).*cos(theta1));
l1 = lengths(1); l2 = lengths(2); l3 = lengths(3); l4 = lengths(4);
l5 = lengths(5);
for i=1:size(theta1,2)
clf;
hold on
plot([0 l1*cos(theta1(i))],[0 l1*sin(theta1(i))],'r');
plot([l1*cos(theta1(i)) l1*cos(theta1(i))+l2*cos(theta2(i))],
[l1*sin(theta1(i)) ...
l1*sin(theta1(i))+l2*sin(theta2(i))],'r');
 plot([l1*cos(theta1(i))+l2*cos(theta2(i)) l1*cos(theta1(i))
+l2*cos(theta2(i))+l3*cos(theta3(i))],...
[l1*sin(theta1(i))+l2*sin(theta2(i)) l1*sin(theta1(i))
+l2*sin(theta2(i))+l3*sin(theta3(i))],'r')
plot([l1*cos(theta1(i)) l1*cos(theta1(i))+l4*cos(theta4(i))],
[l1*sin(theta1(i)) ...
l1*sin(theta1(i))+l4*sin(theta4(i))],'r');
plot([l1*cos(theta1(i))+l4*cos(theta4(i)) l1*cos(theta1(i))
+l4*cos(theta4(i))+l5*cos(theta5(i))],...
[l1*sin(theta1(i))+l4*sin(theta4(i)) l1*sin(theta1(i))
+l4*sin(theta4(i))+l5*sin(theta5(i))],'r')
plot([l1*cos(theta1(i))+l2*cos(theta2(i))+l3*cos(theta3(i))
l1*cos(theta1(i))+l2*cos(theta2(i))+...
l3*cos(theta3(i))+wing*cos(theta3(i))],[l1*sin(theta1(i))
+l2*sin(theta2(i))+l3*sin(theta3(i)) ...
l1*sin(theta1(i))+l2*sin(theta2(i))+l3*sin(theta3(i))
+wing*sin(theta3(i))],'k','LineWidth',2);
plot([l1*cos(theta1(i))+l4*cos(theta4(i))+l5*cos(theta5(i))
l1*cos(theta1(i))+l4*cos(theta4(i))+...
l5*cos(theta5(i))+wing*cos(theta5(i))],[l1*sin(theta1(i)) IV CONCLUSION
+l4*sin(theta4(i))+l5*sin(theta5(i)) ...
Just a basic wing design and control of the
l1*sin(theta1(i))+l4*sin(theta4(i))+l5*sin(theta5(i))
+wing*sin(theta5(i))],'k','LineWidth',2); hummingbird has been studied in this research
axis([-0.5 0.5 -0.5 0.5].*0.1) with the aim to develop a basic and cost effective
axis equal MUAV for surveillance and security purposes. A
pause(0.01); swarm of such drones can be developed for the
end same purpose.
REFERENCES

[1] http://scmero.ulb.ac.be/Publications/Thesis/Ka
rasek_2014_slides.pdf
[2] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7989639
[3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3157
87447_COLIBRI_A_hovering_flapping_twin-
wing_robot/download
.