Hello everyone. This is FWMAV’s first blog post and we hope to continue this new form of communication moving forward.

With the quarter already underway, our team has a few new goals in mind that we wish to accomplish. Starting with our Quadflapper team, we would like to continue our performance testing and see if we can find ways to further optimize the quadflapper. We have been looking at replacing the current batteries with a lighter variant and changing out our balsa wood body with carbon fiber rods. Also, we begin maneuverability and stability testing soon.

The mechanical design team is continuing to manufacture and troubleshoot our active pitching mechanism. We are currently exploring new materials and new manufacturing processes.

Our biggest change from last quarter affects our system identification team. Last quarter, we were focused on solving the equations of motion and thrust for a flapping hummingbird model. This quarter, we want to create a test rig that will give us visual clues toward the air flow around our flapping MAV. A preliminary sketch of this test rig is shown in the image we have provided for the week.