Qualitative flow sensing with 3D-printed sensors for application in a robotic bird

Finished: 2021-06-30

BSc assignment

Robotic birds currently are quite 'dumb', they do not use the airflow like actual birds when flying, but are designed for easy control, like an RC plane. More knowledge is required to improve the RoBird, to make it more resemble a real bird. In this case, that will be specifically for sensing the flow. Birds use leading-edge vortices to fly more efficiently.

The design, 3D-printing, and testing of a sensor for qualitative flow sensing. The sensor will be designed to be on the wings of the RoBird and will measure the presence of vortices on top of the wing while disturbing the flow over the wings as little as possible and not being triggered by the movements of the wings.