Insect-sized aircraft wow Wright State crowd

It was quite an air show. And it all took place in the skies of the Apollo Room inside Wright State University’s Student Union.

Dragonfly-like aerial vehicles circled, hovered, barrel-rolled and otherwise danced above the 100-person audience. Heads craned, jaws dropped and hands clapped.

The people had come to an Open House on March 23 to see the latest developments in Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, which are coming to life and spreading their wings at Wright State. The university’s Ohio Center of Excellence in Micro Air Vehicle Research is working with the Air Force Research Laboratory to produce the next generation of remotely piloted aircraft.

U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Ohio, told the audience that the research is important both to the Air Force and the aerospace industry.

Graduate research assistant Jaederic Dawson explains the technology behind a MAV.

Graduate research assistant Jaederic Dawson explains the technology behind a MAV.

“This is where all the action is,” Austria said. “What your mission is here today makes sense for our region.”

Eight different MAVs were lined up on the stage, poised for takeoff like planes on an aircraft carrier. Then, to the strains of Dragonfly by alternative metal band Shaman’s Harvest, one dragonfly-like vehicle took off and buzzed the crowd. The only sound in the room was the raspy, cellophane-like flapping of the vehicle’s Mylar wings.

George Huang, Ph.D., chair of Wright State’s Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, said the new versions of the vehicles are lighter and more agile than the ones first tested in 2009.He said his researchershave studied and tried to replicate the wing motion of the dragonfly, butterfly, cicada and even the ladybug.

Jaederic Dawson, a Wright State research assistant and graduate student who helped demonstrate the MAVs, said the vehicles are powered by tiny motors similar to ones that cause the vibration in cell phones. He said the MAVs can currently fly for up to 20 minutes at a time and potentially could be useful in nuclear crises like the current one in Japan.

“Maybe if you have 1,000 of them to fly over fuels, you could pinpoint radiation spikes,” Dawson said. “They’re sensor based.”

WSU's Ohio Center of Excellence in Micro Air Vehicle Research is working with the Air Force Research Laboratory to produce the next generation of remotely piloted aircraft.

WSU’s Ohio Center of Excellence in Micro Air Vehicle Research is working with the Air Force Research Laboratory to produce the next generation of remotely piloted aircraft.

Huang said many of the 20 Wright State researchers in the program are undergraduate students, who bring a creative freedom and fearlessness when it comes to trying new things.

“We want to see how far we can push the envelope,” he said.

Huang said the Dayton-Cincinnati area has become the center of Ohio’s aerospace industry. He is looking for partnerships and hopes the MAVs research will grow into business for the region.

Leslie Perkins, who leads the AFRL’s MAV research effort at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, said the vehicles offer the potential to be able to see things from a different perspective.

“Maybe I want to get into a city at or below a rooftop,” Perkins said.

However, she said there are many technology challenges, including developing tiny batteries with enough juice for extended flights. Phil Beran, AFRL’s lead in analysis methods for prototypes, said the vehicles must also be able to operate in gusty environments.

The challenges, Perkins said, are greater than the Defense Department alone can hurdle, requiring partnering with institutions that have “a passion to make this a reality.”

“Wright State is included because this is an area of expertise, and it’s right in our backyard,” she said.

Comments are closed.