Abstract
Birds and insects achieve various maneuvers such as hovering, snap turn, vertical takeoff and landing by using vortices around wings. Above all, a butterfly suits to apply robotics because of lower flapping frequency and fewer degrees of freedom compared with other creatures. In this study, to develop a flapping robot with such maneuvers, we clarify the attitude control mechanism by visualizing the flow field around the wings in the space captured by 3D high-speed camera system. The result showed that a butterfly controlled the turn direction by changing differential pressure distribution on the wings. In addition, the differential pressure was generated on the whole wing in the case of roll angle rotation or on the wing tip in the case of pitch angle rotation.
