Numerical and Experimental Research on Energy Absorption Characteristics and Damage Modes of Biomimetic Anti-collision Structures for Micro Aerial Vehicles

The exoskeleton of the desert beetle exhibits good strength and toughness, effectively protecting its body from external damage. This study utilized the exoskeleton of beetles to establish bio-mimetic thin-walled models with three different bottom structures. Subsequently, simulation experiments were conducted on the optimized structures under various parameter settings. The results demonstrate that when the impact angle increases to 20 degrees, the specific energy absorption value of the structure reaches 2.01 kJ/kg. By adding three layers of partition walls, the specific energy absorption value of the fuselage structure increases to 6.67 kJ/kg, significantly higher than that of the fuselage structure without partition walls. The structure with a wall thickness of 1.8 mm exhibits the best specific energy absorption value of 5.7 kJ/kg. In addition, based on quasi-static crushing experiments, we obtained various damage modes of protective structures fabricated using resin materials. It was found that the overall compressive performance of the M2 structure was poor, while the M3 structure fabricated using Photosensitive Resin exhibited better energy absorption performance. This work can provide valuable insights for the design of protective structures for micro aerial vehicles.