How Insects Fly
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Our robot design copies the good model that nature provides in flying insects instead of how a man made plane flies.
The wing on a airplane has nothing to do with insects wings. In fact, it’s completely different. The wing of an airplane doesn’t move. Lift is created by the shape of the wings and the rushing air. The air goes over the wings creating pressure on the wings which is what lifts it in the air.
The insects wing does its downstroke and the air pushing on it pushes it to move in a circular motion. These vortices of air move down the edge of the wing causing lift. The wing must move both up and down and tilt at the upstroke and the downstroke to make the vortices. [20]
Insects wings use 8 different motions to fly. Image credit: Zbikowski et al.