Proceedings of the International Micro Air Vehicles Conference and Flight Competition 2017 (IMAV 2017)

The IMAV 2017 conference has been held at ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse, France from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21, 2017. More than 250 participants coming from 30 different countries worldwide have presented their latest research activities in the field of drones. 38 papers have been presented during the conference including various topics such as Aerodynamics, Aeroacoustics, Propulsion, Autopilots, Sensors, Communication systems, Mission planning techniques, Artificial Intelligence, Human-machine cooperation as applied to drones

Aerial Vehicles

This book contains 35 chapters written by experts in developing techniques for making aerial vehicles more intelligent, more reliable, more flexible in use, and safer in operation.It will also serve as an inspiration for further improvement of the design and application of aeral vehicles. The advanced techniques and research described here may also be applicable to other high-tech areas such as robotics, avionics, vetronics, and space

Low Speed Flap-bounding in Ornithopters and its Inspiration on the Energy Efficient Flight of Quadrotors

Flap-bounding, a form of intermittent flight, is often exhibited by small birds over their entire range of flight speeds. The purpose of flap-bounding is unclear during low to medium speed (2 - 8 m/s) flight from a mechanical-power perspective: aerodynamic models suggest continuous flapping would require less power output and lower cost of transport. This thesis works towards the understanding of the advantages of flap-bounding and tries to employ the underlining principle to design quadrotor maneuver to improve power efficiency. To explore the functional significance of flap-bounding at low speeds, I measured body trajectory and kinematics of wings and tail of zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata, N=2) during flights in a laboratory between two perches. The flights consist of three phases: initial, descending and ascending. Zebra finch first accelerated using continuous flapping, then descended, featuring intermittent bounds. The flight was completed by ascending using nearly-continuous flapping. When exiting bounds in descending phase, they achieved higher than pre-bound forward velocity by swinging body forward similar to pendulum motion with conserved mechanical energy. Takeoffs of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus, N=3) in the wild was recorded and I found similar kinematics. Our modeling of power output indicates finch achieves higher velocity (13%) with lower cost of transport (9%) when descending, compared with continuous flapping in previously-studied pigeons. To apply the findings to the design of quadrotor motion, a mimicking maneuver was developed that consisted of five phases: projectile drop, drop transition, pendulum swing, rise transition and projectile rise. The quadrotor outputs small amount (4 N) of thrust during projectile drop phase and ramps up the thrust while increasing body pitch angle during the drop transition phase until the thrust enables the quadrotor to advance in pendulum-like motion in the pendulum swing phase. As the quadrotor reaches the symmetric point with respect to the vertical axis of the pendulum motion, it engages in reducing the thrust and pitch angle during the rise transition phase until the thrust is lowered to the same level as the beginning of the maneuver and the body angle of attack minimized (0.2 deg) in the projectile rise phase. The trajectory of the maneuver was optimized to yield minimum cost of transport. The quadrotor moves forward by tracking the cycle of the optimized trajectory repeatedly. Due to the aggressive nature of the maneuver, we developed new algorithms using onboard sensors to determine the estimated position and attitude. By employing nonlinear controller, we showed that cost of transport of the flap-bounding inspired maneuver is lower (28%) than conventional constant forward flight, which makes it the preferable strategy in high speed flight (≥15 m/s)

Reinforcement Learning to Control Lift Coefficient Using Distributed Sensors on a Wind Tunnel Model

Arrays of sensors distributed on the wing of fixed-wing vehicles can provide information not directly available to conventional sensor suites. These arrays of sensors have the potential to improve flight control and overall flight performance of small fixed-wing uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs). This work investigated the feasibility of estimating and controlling aerodynamic coefficients using the experimental readings of distributed pressure and strain sensors across a wing. The study was performed on a one degree-of-freedom model about pitch of a fixed-wing platform instrumented with the distributed sensing system. A series of reinforcement learning (RL) agents were trained in simulation for lift coefficient control, then validated in wind tunnel experiments. The performance of RL-based controllers with different sets of inputs in the observation space were compared with each other and with that of a manually tuned PID controller. Results showed that hybrid RL agents that used both distributed sensing data and conventional sensors performed best across the different tests.</p

꼬리날개 없는 날갯짓 초소형 비행체의 자세조절

학위논문 (박사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 기계항공공학부, 2020. 8. 김현진.최근 생체모방에 대한 관심이 커지면서 생명체의 구조, 외형, 움직임, 행동을 분석하여 그들의 장점을 로봇에 적용시켜 기존의 로봇이 해결할 수 없거나 특별한 임무를 좀 더 효과, 효율적으로 해결하려는 시도가 늘어나고 있다. 이러한 시도는 무인비행체 개발에도 적용되고 있으며 날갯짓 비행체가 이에 해당된다. 날개짓 비행체는 날개의 반복운동을 통해 발생하는 힘을 통해 비행하는 비행체로 일반적으로 꼬리날개의 유무에 따라 새를 모방한 비행체(미익형 비행체)와 곤충을 모방한 비행체(무미익형 비행체)로 구분할 수 있다. 무미익형 비행체의 경우 제자리 비행을 할 수 있고, 크기가 작고 무게가 가벼워 공기저항도 줄일 수 있으며, 날렵한 비행이 가능하다는 장점이 있지만, 수동 안정성을 확보하기 위한 제어면이 충분하지 않고 추력 생성과 동시에 3축으로의 제어 모멘트를 만들 수 있는 복잡한 매커니즘을 가지고 있다는 특징을 가지고 있다. 본 논문에서는 저자의 미익형 비행체의 연구개발 사례를 토대로 자율 비행을 할 수 있는 무미익형 비행체를 개발하기 위한 요소기술들과 초기 비행체 개발을 목표로 한다. 해당 목표를 달성하기 위해 저자는 시중에서 판매되고 있는 RC장난감을 활용해 30 gram 이하의 무게를 가지고 30cm3 이내의 크기를 가지는 무미익형 날갯짓 비행체를 개발을 진행하였다. 비행체 내부에는 구동기로 DC 모터와 서보모터가 존재하며, DC 모터는 날갯짓을 일으키는 기어 박스를 작동시켜 비행체의 무게를 지탱하기 위한 thrust를 생성하며 roll축 방향으로의 moment 생성에 관여하며, 서보모터는 날갯짓에서 발생하는 좌우 thrust의 방향을 조절하여 pitch 와 yaw 축으로의 모멘트를 생성하는데 사용된다. 비행체 내부에는 아두이노 보드 기반의 마이크로프로세서가 탑재되어 있어 비행체를 제어하기 위한 신호를 생성할 수 있으며 블루투스 통신 모듈을 가지고 있기 때문에 외부와 통신 역시 가능하다. 비행체의 자세를 제어하기 위해서는 구동기의 상호작용으로 인해 발생하는 힘의 물리량을 파악하는 것이 중요하다. 이를 위해 날갯짓 메커니즘에서 발생하는 힘을 측정하는 실험을 수행하였다. 측정실험을 통해 DC모터 입력 대비 thrust 크기, 서보모터 command 입력 대비 moment 크기 등의 관계를 파악하였다. 또한 날갯짓 비행체를 공중에 띄울 수 있는 충분한 크기의 thrust를 발생하는 것을 확인하였으며 자세 제어를 위한 모멘트 생성 역시 가능하다는 것을 확인하였다. 비행체의 자세를 제어하기 위해서는 3축 방향으로의 운동방정식을 유도하는 것이 필요하다. 이를 위해 roll, pitch, yaw 축 방향으로 비행체에서 발생하는 힘과 회전 운동과 관련한 운동방정식을 유도했으며 이를 통해 비행체의 자세를 안정화시킬 수 있도록 하는 PID 제어기 형태의 제어기를 설계하였다. 뿐만 아니라, 비행체의 궤적추종 제어를 위해 내부의 자세 제어기에 비행체의 위치를 토대로 계산되는 추가적인 외부 제어기를 설계하여 이중루프 제어기 형태를 적용시켜 시뮬레이션을 통해 비행체의 자세 제어와 궤적 추종 제어가 이루어짐을 확인하였다. 개발한 비행체와 앞서 설계한 제어기가 사용자의 의도에 맞는 성능을 내는지 확인하기 위해 자이로 실험장치를 제작하여 자세 제어 실험을 수행하였다. 해당 실험장치는 roll, pitch, yaw 축으로 회전이 가능하도록 제작하였으며 실험장치 자체의 무게를 줄이기 위해 MDF 소재를 사용하여 구조물를 만들었다. roll, pitch, yaw 3축이 각각 독립적으로 제어하는 것과 3축을 동시에 제어하는 2가지 상황을 고려하였으며 앞서 설계한 제어기가 해당 실험 장치 내부에서 사용자의 의도에 맞게 제어 성능을 보이는지 확인할 수 있었다. 궤적 추종제어를 위해서는 2가지 비행 상황을 설정하였다. 첫 번째 경우, 천장과 비행체 상단부에 실을 연결하여 2D 평면상에서 비행체가 주워진 궤적에 따라 움직이는지, 두 번째 경우, 비행체 상단부에 헬륨이 주입된 풍선을 연결시켜 3D 공간상에서 주워진 궤적을 따라 추종 비행하는지를 확인할 수 있는 상황이다. 두 가지 상황에서 모두 다양한 형태의 궤적을 비행체가 잘 추종하는지를 확인할 수 있었다. 끝으로, 외부 장치(실, 풍선)를 제거하여 공중에서 비행체가 제자리 비행을 할 수 있는지를 검증하는 실험을 진행하였으며, 15초가량 1m3 공간 내에서 제자리 비행이 이루어지는 것을 확인하였다.Flapping wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) that generate thrust and lift by flapping their wings are regarded as promising flight vehicles because of their advantages in terms of similar appearance and maneuverability to natural creatures. Reducing weight and air resistance, insect-inspired tailless FWMAVs are an attractive aerial vehicle rather than bird-inspired FWMAVs. However, they are challenging platforms to achieve autonomous flight because they have insufficient control surfaces to secure passive stability and a complicated wing mechanism for generating three-axis control moments simultaneously. In this thesis, as preliminary autonomous flight research, I present the study of an attitude regulation and trajectory tracking control of a tailless FWMAV developed. For these tasks, I develop my platform, which includes two DC motors for generating thrust to support its weight and servo motors for generating three-axis control moments to regulate its flight attitude. First, I conduct the force and moment measurement experiment to confirm the magnitude and direction of the lift and moment generated from the wing mechanism. From the measurement test, it is confirmed that the wing mechanism generates enough thrust to float the vehicle and control moments for attitude regulation. Through the dynamic equations in the three-axis direction of the vehicle, a controller for maintaining a stable attitude of the vehicle can be designed. To this end, a dynamic equation related to the rotational motion in the roll, pitch, and yaw axes is derived. Based on the derived dynamic equations, we design a proportional-integral-differential controller (PID) type controller to compensate for the attitude of the vehicle. Besides, we use a multi-loop control structure (inner-loop: attitude control, outer-loop: position control) to track various trajectories. Simulation results show that the designed controller is effective in regulating the platforms attitude and tracking a trajectory. To check whether the developed vehicle and the designed controller are operating effectively to regulate its attitude, I design a lightweight gyroscope apparatus using medium-density-fiberboard (MDF) material. The rig is capable of freely rotating in the roll, pitch, and yaw axes. I consider two situations in which each axis is controlled independently, and all axes are controlled simultaneously. In both cases, attitude regulation is properly performed. Two flight situations are considered for the trajectory tracking experiment. In the first case, a string connects between the ceiling and the top of the platform. In the second case, the helium-filled balloon is connected to the top of the vehicle. In both cases, the platform tracks various types of trajectories well in error by less than 10 cm. Finally, an experiment is conducted to check whether the tailless FWMAV could fly autonomously in place by removing external devices (string, balloon), and the tailless FWMAV flies within 1 m^3 space for about 15 seconds1.Introduction 1 1.1 Background & Motivation 1 1.2 Literature review 3 1.3 Thesis contribution 7 1.4 Thesis outline 8 2.Design of tailless FWMAV 13 2.1 Platform appearance 13 2.2 Flight control system 17 2.3 Principle of actuator mechanism 18 3.Force measurement experiment 28 3.1 Measurement setup 28 3.2 Measurement results 30 4.Dynamics & Controller design 37 4.1 Preliminary 37 4.2 Dynamics & Attitude control 39 4.2.1 Roll direction 41 4.2.2 Pitch direction 43 4.2.3 Yaw direction 45 4.2.4 PID control 47 4.3 Trajectory tracking control 48 5.Attitude regulation experiments 50 5.1 Design of gyroscope testbed 50 5.2 Experimental environment 52 5.3 Roll axis free 53 5.3.1 Simulation 54 5.3.2 Experiment 55 5.4 Pitch axis free 56 5.4.1 Simulation 57 5.4.2 Experiment 58 5.5 Yaw axis free 59 5.5.1 Simulation 59 5.5.2 Experiment 60 5.6 All axes free 60 5.6.1 Simulation 60 5.6.2 Experiment 61 5.7 Design of universal joint testbed & Experiment 64 6.Trajectory tracking 68 6.1 Simulation 68 6.2 Preliminary 69 6.3 Experiment: Tied-to-the-ceiling 70 6.4 Experiment: Hung-to-a-balloon 71 6.5 Summary 72 6.6 Hovering flight 73 7.Conclusion 83 A Appendix: Wing gearbox 85 A.1 4-bar linkage structure 85 B Appendix: Disturbance observer (DOB) 87 B.1 DOB controller 87 B.2 Simulation 89 B.2.1 Step input 89 B.2.2 Sinusoid input 91 B.3 Experiment 92 References 95Docto

On Aerial Robots with Grasping and Perching Capabilities: A Comprehensive Review

Over the last decade, there has been an increased interest in developing aerial robotic platforms that exhibit grasping and perching capabilities not only within the research community but also in companies across different industry sectors. Aerial robots range from standard multicopter vehicles/drones, to autonomous helicopters, and fixed-wing or hybrid devices. Such devices rely on a range of different solutions for achieving grasping and perching. These solutions can be classified as: 1) simple gripper systems, 2) arm-gripper systems, 3) tethered gripping mechanisms, 4) reconfigurable robot frames, 5) adhesion solutions, and 6) embedment solutions. Grasping and perching are two crucial capabilities that allow aerial robots to interact with the environment and execute a plethora of complex tasks, facilitating new applications that range from autonomous package delivery and search and rescue to autonomous inspection of dangerous or remote environments. In this review paper, we present the state-of-the-art in aerial grasping and perching mechanisms and we provide a comprehensive comparison of their characteristics. Furthermore, we analyze these mechanisms by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed technologies and we summarize the significant achievements in these two research topics. Finally, we conclude the review by suggesting a series of potential future research directions that we believe that are promising

A Survey on Aerial Swarm Robotics

The use of aerial swarms to solve real-world problems has been increasing steadily, accompanied by falling prices and improving performance of communication, sensing, and processing hardware. The commoditization of hardware has reduced unit costs, thereby lowering the barriers to entry to the field of aerial swarm robotics. A key enabling technology for swarms is the family of algorithms that allow the individual members of the swarm to communicate and allocate tasks amongst themselves, plan their trajectories, and coordinate their flight in such a way that the overall objectives of the swarm are achieved efficiently. These algorithms, often organized in a hierarchical fashion, endow the swarm with autonomy at every level, and the role of a human operator can be reduced, in principle, to interactions at a higher level without direct intervention. This technology depends on the clever and innovative application of theoretical tools from control and estimation. This paper reviews the state of the art of these theoretical tools, specifically focusing on how they have been developed for, and applied to, aerial swarms. Aerial swarms differ from swarms of ground-based vehicles in two respects: they operate in a three-dimensional space and the dynamics of individual vehicles adds an extra layer of complexity. We review dynamic modeling and conditions for stability and controllability that are essential in order to achieve cooperative flight and distributed sensing. The main sections of this paper focus on major results covering trajectory generation, task allocation, adversarial control, distributed sensing, monitoring, and mapping. Wherever possible, we indicate how the physics and subsystem technologies of aerial robots are brought to bear on these individual areas