BIONIC DRONE BIRD (ORNITHOPTER)

G. B. PANT GOVT. ENGINEERING COLLEGE

PROJECT SUPERVISOR : MR. JAYANT P. SUPALE

AMULYA SAXENA 40520903616

AYUSH ARORA 01220903616
MOHIT 03220903616
VIKAS RAWAT 40220903616
 Introduction
•Ornithopter, A flapping UAV is flight vehicle which
generates aerodynamic forces and moments to fly.

•All histories of
ornithopters begin with
Leonardo Da Vinci's
human powered design.
Although this was not
capable of flight, it
showed a great deal of
careful thought and
engineering.
• In 1871,jobert became the first person to create
an unmanned ornithopter .Although ,it was
powered by rubber band.
• In 1970,USA CIA used a tiny 1g weight dragonfly
looking ornithopter that was able to fly for 60
seconds using gas producing chemicals.it was
controlled with some kind of laser guidance
system which was not that much effective.
• Robert musters began series of RC ornithopters
in 2007 with foam,actively twisted wings.the
appearance of these ornithopters is close to that
of real bird and they are being offered for use in
bird control at airports.
•In our project we are
designing and developing
an Ornithopter that is
exactly a replica of living
bird commonly known as
Herring Gull.
Challenges
•One of the major challenges is to reduce the Drag
during the upward motion of the wings. During the wing
upstroke the air flow hits the wing rather from above
and in the down stroke rather from bottom. The flapping
wing must adapt to these alternating incoming flow
directions.
• FORCES:
• Four forces directly acts on flying model .those are
lift force ,drag force,thrust force and weight of the
bird.thrust and drag cancel each other and same
thing goes for lift and weight when the model is in
cruising flight.
• Lift is function of the air density,square
• Of the velocity,the viscosity and
• Compressibility,the surface area over which
• The air flows,the body shape and the
• wing angle to the flow.
The cross section of bird’s wing is known s airfoil
shaped ad the airfoil shape mainly describes how
lift is generated.from bird’s wings we found out that
the wings are shaped in such way that the distance
from the front to the back over the top of the wing
is greater than the distance measured under the
wing.the curvature is the main formula for of the lift
generation,which was found from bernoulli’s
theorem .in order for the same amount of air to
pass over the longer distance on top,the air flows
much faster over the top and slower over the
bottom as the distance is lower there .the airfoil
gains large lift force for an angle of inclination
below the critical angle of attack.
• By dividing lift by drag.the lift to drag ratio is
obtained as lift and drag change with angle,the
lift to drag ratio will also change .there will be an
angle at which the lift to drag ratio is
largest,where we will get greatest lift,for least
amount of drag it is essential to make wing to
operate at this angle throughout most of the
stroke.
PROJECT ANALYSIS
 CALCULATIONS
• Frequency = 4.085
• Wing Length = 60cm
• Wing Width = 20cm
• Aspect Ratio = 120/20 = 6
• Tail = 15cm
• Beak = 5cm
• Total Length = 40cm
• Total Width = 130cm
• Theoretical Speed = 86.4kmph
 CALCULATIONS
• Average Current = 11A
• Thrust = 5.46N
• Tail Length(Motion) = 5cm
• Tail Breadth (Motion) = (4.5+4.5)cm
• Tail Motion Angle = 60
• Centre Of Mass Assumptions = 30cm From Back
 Mechanism of Wings Motion
1 Pivoted to the frame

2
4

6
3

The mechanism of the wings consist of links and

members which is to used to convert rotating
motion of the motor to the flapping motion of the
ornithopter.
The mechanism consist of 6 members:
•Member 1 is connected to the final gear of the
geartrain and is pivoted to it. Member 1 is also
connected to member 2 & 3 and transmits power
to them.
•Member 2 is further hinged to the frame of the
ornithopter which gives the flapping motion to it.
•Member 2 &3 are connected to each other by
linking member 4 and thus gives constrained
relative motion to it. Member 3 is also connected
to member 6 by linking member 5.
• Member 6 is also hinged to member 2 and motion of
the member 6 is governed by the force applied by
member 3 which gives increased motion to the
member 6.
The mechanism is designed in such a way that when
the wings moves upward, the member 6 gets folded
to reduce the area and thus reduces the drag force
considerably & when the wings moves downwards,
member 6 extends to the maximum to increase the
area of the wings to force more area below the
wings and increase the lift force.
Fig. Extended Wing during
downward motion
Further the wings has twisting/tilting action which also
helps in reducing drag and provides thrust for the
motion of the ornithopter. When the wings moves
upwards, it tilts in backward direction which reduces
the drag force and when the wings moves in
downward, it tilts in forward direction and generates
the thrust required to propel the ornithopter.

Fig. Folded Wing during

upward motion
 Mechanism of Tail Motion
The tail of the ornithopter is consist of two parts:
• Rudder
• Elevator

Rudder:
• Rudder of the ornithopter is used to change its yaw i.e.
it is used to control the direction of the ornithopter.
• The motion of the rudder is controlled by servo motor
which turns the tail of the ornithopter to change its
direction.
Elevator:
•Elevator of the ornithopter is used to control its pitch
i.e. upward and downward motion.
•When the elevator is moved upward, the tail moves
downwards and the nose moves upward & thus
ornithopter pitches to the upward direction while
when the elevator is moved downward, the tail moves
upwards and the nose moves downward & thus
ornithopter pitches to the downward direction.
•The motion of the elevator is also controlled by servo
motor.
 Geartrain
The geartrain of ornithopter is consist of compound gearing having the
following number of teeth starting from the gear on the motor(G0) to
the final gear(G9) :
• G0 – 14
• G1 – 26
• G2 – 9
• G3 – 36
• G4 – 16
• G5 – 28
• G6 – 14
• G7 – 30
• G8 – 15
• G9 – 25

The compound gearing gives the reduction of 1 : 46.425 which reduces

the motor speed from 12000rpm to required 258rpm & also increases
the torque.
 Electronics
•BLDC ( 12v, 12000rpm)
A Brushless DC motor shall be used
to power the wings of the Bird.
•Servo Motors ( 5V,
180degrees )
2 servos are used to
control the movement of
the tail.
•6CH Transmitter with FS-R6B Receiver
A 6 channel Transmitter and FS-R6B Receiver is
used to transmit and receive 2.4Ghz Radio Signal.

•ESC (Electronic Speed Control)

Electronic speed control module is used to control
the speed of the BLDC motor.

•Li-Po Battery (12v, 1000mah)

A Lithium Polymer based battery having
1000mah capacity and output voltage of 12v
weighing just 75grams.
 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF POWERTRAIN

Wings 1

Tail ControlT Servo motors Battery BLDC Motor Geartrain

Receiver Wings 2

Transmitter
 Materials
Selection of the appropriate
material so as to keep the
overall weight of the
ornithopter as low as
possible is the major task.

•Wings- Taffeta Nylon

reinforced with plastic wire
mesh.
•Frame: Plastic sheet(3mm)
•Supporting Structure:
Hollow plastic pipes
 Applications
•Ornithopters can be made to resemble birds or insects,
they could be used for military applications such as aerial
reconnaissance without alerting the enemies that they are
under surveillance. Several ornithopters have been flown
with video cameras on board, some of which can hover
and maneuver in small spaces.
•The radio-controlled robot bird can be used to scare away
birds that could damage the engines of airplanes.
•Ornithopters can find a lot of applications in large
agricultural fields as well.
Prototype 1
CAD Model
CAD Model