Bounded control of a flapping wing micro drone in three dimensions

International audienceThis paper presents a bounded control of a flapping micro Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) in three dimensions. First, a simplified model of the flapping UAV is presented. The averaging theory shows that for high frequency systems, only the mean aerodynamic forces and torques over a period affect the movement of the body. Therefore, a bounded nonlinear state feedback control, calculated using the averaged model, is applied to the time varying system in order to stabilize it at a desired position in hovering mode. The robustness of the control is tested with respect to the aerodynamic coefficient and to external disturbances

Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles: An Analysis of the Importance of the Mass of the Wings to Flight Dynamics, Stability, and Control.

The flight dynamics, stability, and control of a model flapping wing micro air vehicle are analyzed with a focus on the inertial and mass effects of the wings on the position and orientation of the body. A multi-body, flight dynamics model is derived from first principles. The multi-body model predicts significant differences in the position and orientation of the flapping wing micro air vehicle, when compared to a flight dynamics model based on the standard aircraft, or six degree of freedom, equations of motion. The strongly coupled, multi-body equations of motion are transformed into first order form using an approximate inverse and appropriate assumptions. Local (na ̈ıve) averaging of the first order system does not produce an accurate result and a new approximation technique named ‘quarter-cycle’ averaging is proposed. The technique is effective in reducing the error by at least an order of magnitude for three reference flight conditions. A stability analysis of the local averaged equations of motions, in the vicinity of a hover condition, produces a modal structure consist with the most common vertical takeoff or landing structure and independent stability analyses of the linearized flight dynamics of insect models. The inclusion of the wing xv effects produces a non-negligible change in the linear stability of a hawkmoth-sized model. The hovering solution is shown, under proper control, to produce a limit cycle. The control input to achieve a limit cycle is different if the flight dynamics model includes the wing effects or does not include the wing effects. Improper control input application will not produce the desired limit cycle effects. A scaling analysis is used to analyze the relative importance of the mass of the wings, based on the quarter-cycle approximation. The conclusion of the scaling analysis is that the linear momentum effects of the wings are always important in terms of the inertial position of the flapping wing micro air vehicle. Above a flapping frequency of approximately 30-40 Hz, the mass and inertial effects of the wings on the orientation of the body can be neglected.Ph.D.Aerospace EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86350/1/cptorlo_1.pd