DelFly

DelFly:

         The DelFly is a fully controllable camera-equipped flapping wing Micro Air Vehicle or Ornithopter developed at the Micro Air Vehicle Lab of the Delft University of Technology in collaboration with Wageningen University.  In 2005 a group of 11 students completed their Bachelor studies by making a first design for the DelFly. It was designed to take part in an international MAV competition in Germany. With their design they won the Symposium for Bachelor thesis projects of the faculty of Aerospace Engineering . The team of students and their supervisors built the first DelFly I with a wing span of 50 cm and a weight of 21 grams and joined the competition in Germany. The jury was very impressed by the unique design of the MAV, that was able to fly both fast and slow. while also carrying a camera onboard.A follow up design was made in 2007, resulting in DelFly II, with 28 cm wing span and a weight of 16 grams. This design thereby not only smaller and lighter, but also has a larger flight envelop. It was capable of both hovering, flying forward with 7 m/s as well as flying backward with 1 m/s. It could keep flying for up to 15 minutes.

The DelFly Project:

  The DelFly project started in 2005 as a Design Synthesis Exercise for a group of Bachelor of Science students at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of the TU Delft. The flapping wing design was mentored by Wageningen University, the remote control and micro camera integration by Ruijsink Dynamic Engineering, and the real-time image processing by the TU Delft. The result of this exercise was the DelFly I, a 50 cm wingspan, 21 grams flapping wing MAV equipped with a camera. The DelFly I was able to fly both fast and perform slow hovering flight while providing reasonably stable camera images.The DelFly project aims at developing a very small autonomous flapping wing MAV. This involves many challenging design aspects such as mechanics, materials, aerodynamics, electronics and control. The strategy of the DelFly project is therefore to follow a top-down approach: the focus is first on developing a fully operational and autonomous system (which is not the smallest), and then the step to a smaller scale is made.

Micro DelFly:

     The DelFly Micro only weighs 3 grams and has a size of 10 cm from wing tip to wing tip. This makes it the smallest flying ornithopter carrying a camera in the world. The DelFly Micro is very useful for the progress of science. Designing it already brought together knowledge from fields such as aerodynamics, mechanics, electronics, and camera technology. Furthermore, the DelFly Micro is an ideal platform for studying both the aerodynamics and autonomy of small, flying ornithopters.

It has following specifications:

Battery: 30 mAh lithium polymer, for three minutes of flight.

Range: 50m

Actuators: 0.5 gram;

Size: 10 cm , from wingtip to wingtip 

Mass: 3.07 gram; 

Battery: 1 gram

Camera and transmitter: 0.4 gram;

 Engine: 0.45 gram;

 Receiver: 0.2 gram; 

 Rest: about 0.52 grams.

  Flap frequency wings: 30 Hz

 Materials: Mylar foil (wings), carbon and balsawood.