A biomimetic pitching and flapping mechanism including a support member, at least
two blade joints for holding blades and operatively connected to the support member.
An outer shaft member is concentric with the support member, and an inner shaft
member is concentric with the outer shaft member. The mechanism allows the blades
of a small-scale rotor to be actuated in the flap and pitch degrees of freedom.
The pitching and the flapping are completely independent from and uncoupled to
each other. As such, the rotor can independently flap, or independently pitch,
or flap and pitch simultaneously with different amplitudes and/or frequencies.
The mechanism can also be used in a non-rotary wing configuration, such as an ornithopter,
in which case the rotational degree of freedom would be suppressed.