Design of a Six-Bar Linkage-Inspired Reversible Wing for Stopped-Rotor Vehicles

Abstract

Reversible morphing wings, capable of exchanging the direction of the leading and trailing edge, improve the feasibility of stopped-rotor aerial vehicles and thereby expand aerial robotics capabilities. Despite the potential benefits of reversible morphing wings, few designs exist and most do not consider the coupled aerodynamic and structural effects of the introduced morphing mechanisms. We report a six-bar linkage-inspired reversible morphing wing design that is compliant, yet structurally rigid against aerodynamic loading. Compared to alternative methods for reversing airfoil direction, the developed wing increases the maximum aerodynamic performance by 50%, while also yielding a non-zero efficiency at 0° angle of attack. The proposed linkage system derives rigidity by strategically eliminating degrees of freedom upon actuation. To validate the linkage theory of rigidity, the full wing is studied under one-way fluid-structural interaction simulations. Furthermore, we demonstrate how constrained optimization can be applied to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of these wings subject to the constraints of a six-bar linkage system.