Status: design phase

This is the avidrone, one of my favorite projects. I’ve been working on it since august, so it’s a fairly long term project. Currently it is in its design phase in solidworks, which I hope to complete by the end of March and get it cnc routed by the end of April, to keep me on track for completion in June.

Renders:

here is a short animation showing the flapping of a single wing. This is an old render so the actual motion has been altered since its creation:

Specs:

Material: frame	2mm Carbon Fiber Plate
Material: gears	High strength PEEK plastic
Material: Wings	1.5mm EPP Foam
Wingspan:	2 meters
Motor:	DYS 1806 2300kv
Battery:	2s LiPo
Weight:	<200g hopefully
Servos:	4x 4.5g hitec
Control:	Custom SmartOrni board featuring Atmel AtTiny85
Channels:	throttle/flapping speedaileron elevator rudder

Controller board:

The board is a custom ATTINY based pcb that I designed specifically for this purpose. Its function is to take the input from the aileron channel as well as the status of a hall effect sensor to twist the wingtips to achieve a variable angle of attack for the forewing. This function is critical in an actively flapping ornithopter, and it provides the forward thrust as well as aileron control necessary for successful flight. I got these boards printed at OshPark for $2 each, and I have 6 of them that I plan to give to the others working on similar birds.

Acknowledgements and other info:

The progress of this project is periodically updated here on rcgroups.

A large amount of this design is based on similar designs by Festo Engineering, here, and by Hiro, here.