Flapping wing aerial vehicle

A flapping wing aerial vehicle, for which an imaginary right-hand sided axis system comprising an X-axis, a Y-axis, and a Z-axis is defined, the flapping wing aerial vehicle comprising:

• at least a first wing and a second wing, the second wing being opposite to the first wing, each wing comprising a wing membrane, a root section, and a leading edge section;
• a support structure, to which the wings are directly or indirectly connected, the support structure extending substantially parallel to the Z-axis;
• at least one flapping mechanism, comprising at least a first spar and a flapping actuator, the at least a first spar being attached to the wing membrane of the first wing and/or the second wing, the flapping actuator being configured to pivot said at least one spar with respect to a flapping pivot axis substantially parallel to the Z-axis for inducing a flapping motion of said first wing and/or second wing;
• a first attitude control mechanism, configured to induce a pitch moment to the flapping wing aerial vehicle;
• and
• an attitude controller, configured to generate respectively a pitch control signal for controlling said first attitude control mechanism to induce a pitch moment;
• wherein the first wing comprises a first leading edge spar and the second wing comprises a second leading edge spar, said first and second leading edge spars being pivotable with respect to a first pivot axis substantially parallel to the Z-axis, allowing the dihedral angle of the corresponding wing to be changed,
• wherein the first attitude control mechanism comprises a first actuator, configured to pivot the first and second leading edge spars simultaneously in substantially the same direction with respect to a YZ-plane, for inducing a pitch moment to the flapping wing aerial vehicle, and
• wherein the first actuator is configured to pivot the first and second leading edge spars and the flapping actuator with respect to said first pivot axis.