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Title
Japanese:Forward flight of swallowtail butterfly with simple flapping motion 
English:Forward flight of swallowtail butterfly with simple flapping motion 
Author
Japanese: H. Tanaka, I. Shimoyama.  
English: H. Tanaka, I. Shimoyama.  
Language English 
Journal/Book name
Japanese:Bioinspiration & Biomimetics 
English:Bioinspiration & Biomimetics 
Volume, Number, Page Vol. 5        pp. 026003
Published date May 20, 2010 
Publisher
Japanese: 
English:IOP Publishing 
Conference name
Japanese: 
English: 
Conference site
Japanese: 
English: 
Official URL http://stacks.iop.org/1748-3190/5/i=2/a=026003
 
Abstract Unlike other flying insects, the wing motion of swallowtail butterflies is basically limited to flapping because their fore wings partly overlap their hind wings, structurally restricting the feathering needed for active control of aerodynamic force. Hence, it can be hypothesized that the flight of swallowtail butterflies is realized with simple flapping, requiring little feedback control of the feathering angle. To verify this hypothesis, we fabricated an artificial butterfly mimicking the wing motion and wing shape of a swallowtail butterfly and analyzed its flights using images taken with a high-speed video camera. The results demonstrated that stable forward flight could be realized without active feathering or feedback control of the wing motion. During the flights, the artificial butterfly's body moved up and down passively in synchronization with the flapping, and the artificial butterfly followed an undulating flight trajectory like an actual swallowtail butterfly. Without feedback control of the wing motion, the body movement is directly affected by change of aerodynamic force due to the wing deformation; the degree of deformation was determined by the wing venation. Unlike a veinless wing, a mimic wing with veins generated a much higher lift coefficient during the flapping flight than in a steady flow due to the large body motion.
Award IOP Select; Featured Article; Highlight of 2010

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