Research Progress on Modeling and Control of Flapping-wing Air Vehicles

The flapping-wing air vehicle (FAV) is a sort of bionic-robot, which simulates insect and bird flight. Comparing with fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, FAV is characterized by efficiency, low mass, high flexibility and energy conservation, and is a major trend of the aircraft development. The study of FAV can date from the end of 20th century. And now, great achievements have been made both in the theoretical research and modeling. This overview introduces the characters of the leading FAVs in the world, followed by an overlook and outlook of the aerodynamics, energy-supply and control problem for FAVs.