Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are envisioned to be used for missions including surveillance, bio-chemical sensing, environment monitoring, and disaster search. Flapping-wing propulsion presents a unique set of interrelated issues in aerodynamic, structural, and flight control design. Aerodynamically, the flow field is dominated by an array of unsteady flow mechanisms. The remarkable maneuverability of insect flight is in part due to large structural deformations (torsion, camber change and transverse bending) of the wing during each cycle. What is becoming clear in recent years is that this dynamic twisting is the primary secret of the dragonfly�s flying prowess, and the wing has been designed through millions of years of evolution to produce just the right kind of twisting.

Generally, the tiny aircraft is restricted to below 15 centimeters- or 6 inches- wingspan, and not more than 18 gram load.To make useful aerial vehicles, sub-systems, like communication, processor, sensor, propulsion, and power system, should be stuffed into one airframe. The conventional approach to hardware integration, however, becomes extremely difficult, for the separate systems consume more volume and weight than may be available. To circumvent these bottlenecks, microelectronics or MEMS-based integration technology is therefore applause for lighter components, and dense packaging, provided monolithic integration available. Besides, microelectronic and MEMs based technology is extremely suitable for mass production with low cost, high yield and reliability, which is specifically interested to the commercial market. The matured semiconductor technology on the other hand guarantees a straightforward technology transfer from university research to industrial products. MEMS-based components cover from sensor, actuator, and effectors, to power (battery), communication (transceiver & control system), and aircraft wing system. In the past, due to the complexity, little attention has been paid to integration of MEMS-based components into aerial vehicle airframe.

Due to the small size, control of the aerial vehicle is, however, an extremely difficult task due to the lack of understanding of aerodynamics with small Reynolds number (<10000). The low-Reynolds number flow fields associated with MAVs are characterized by flow separation, unsteadiness and viscous interactions, which does not encountered for air vehicles with larger size. The overall vehicle requires a system of lift and thrust production that can quickly respond to flow field changes. Such a system, to our knowledge, has not yet been demonstrated. For this purpose, we develop silicon nanowired ultra-sensitive pressure sensor (snulps) to instantly measure the pressure/shear stress with ultrahigh sensitivity, and smart piezoelectric actuator (smpa) as the effector to adjust the flight mode.