Some Relevant Flying Insect Engineering Data


Please send suggestions, comments, and corrections to ronf@eecs

Dragon Fly Data

table13

equation24

M.L. May, ``Dragonfly Flight: Power Requirements at High Speed and Acceleration'', Jnl. of Experimental Biology, vol. 158, pp. 325-342, 1991.

Dragon Fly Data, S. sanguineum

J.M. Wakeling and C.P. Ellington, ``Dragon Fly Flight: III. Lift and Power Requirements'' Jnl. of Experimental Biology, vol 200, pp. 583-600, 1997.

Fruit Fly Data, Drosophila

  • mass 1.05 mgm, 30% muscle, peak muscle power tex2html_wrap_inline113
  • hovering: 19 tex2html_wrap_inline115 , cruising: tex2html_wrap_inline117 : 24 tex2html_wrap_inline115 ,
  • efficiency 6 to 10%
  • wing velocity 1.4 - 2.2 tex2html_wrap_inline123 , flight force tex2html_wrap_inline125 peak
  • wing stroke tex2html_wrap_inline127 , beat 190-230 Hz, length 2.5 mm
  • muscle stress tex2html_wrap_inline129 , 1% strain
M.H. Dickinson and J.R.B. Lighton, ``Muscle Efficiency and Elastic Storage in the Flight Motor of Drosophila'', Science, vol. 268, pp. 87-90, 7 April 1995.

Speed and Range


Hoverfly
  • burst speed 40 km/hr (11 m/s)
monarch butterfly
  • cruise speed 18 km/hr (5m/s)
  • mass = 0.6 gram, fuel = 25% by weight fat
  • range 800 km open loop, 4000 km using terrain and thermal features
J. Brackenbury, Insects in Flight London: Blandford.

Vertebrate Muscle Data

  • max. static stress tex2html_wrap_inline139 , sustainable tex2html_wrap_inline141
  • strain > 40%, strain rate 5/s
  • peak power at tex2html_wrap_inline145 max. strain rate, and tex2html_wrap_inline145 max. stress
  • peak power tex2html_wrap_inline149 0.1 (max. stress)(max. strain rate) tex2html_wrap_inline151
  • stiffness varies over 10 fold range dependent on length and activation
I.W. Hunter and S. Lafontaine, ``A Comparison of Muscle with Artificial Actuators'', Solid-State Sensor and Actuator Workshop, pp. 178-185, Hilton Head, SC, June 22-25, 1992.


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