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

Uncertainty and disturbance estimator-based control of a flapping-wing aerial vehicle withwith unknown backlash-like hysteresis

Robust and accurate control of a flapping-wing aerial vehicle (FWAV) system is a challenging problem due to the existence of backlash-like hysteresis nonlinearity. This paper proposes uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE)-based control with output feedback for FWAV systems. The approach enables the acquisition of the approximate plant model with only a partial knowledge of system parameters. For the design of the controller, only the bandwidth information of the unknown plant model is needed, which is available through the UDE filter. The stability analysis of the closed-loop system with the UDE-based controller is presented. It is shown that the proposed control scheme can ensure the boundedness of the control signals. A number of numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the satisfactory trajectory tracking performance of the proposed method

Attitude and Position Control of a Flapping Micro Aerial Vehicle

International audienc

DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A HUMMINGBIRD-SIZE FLAPPING WING MICRO AERIAL VEHICLE

Flying animals with flapping wings may best exemplify the astonishing ability of natural selection on design optimization. They evince extraordinary prowess to control their flight, while demonstrating rich repertoire of agile maneuvers. They remain surprisingly stable during hover and can make sharp turns in a split second. Characterized by high-frequency flapping wing motion, unsteady aerodynamics, and the ability to hover and perform fast maneuvers, insect-like flapping flight presents an extraordinary aerial locomotion strategy perfected at small size scales. Flapping Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (FWMAVs) hold great promise in bridging the performance gap between engineered flying vehicles and their natural counterparts. They are perfect candidates for potential applications such as fast response robots in search and rescue, environmental friendly agents in precision agriculture, surveillance and intelligence gathering MAVs, and miniature nodes in sensor networks

Challenges in control and autonomy of unmanned aerial-aquatic vehicles

Autonomous aquatic vehicles capable of flight can deploy more rapidly, access remote or constricted areas, overfly obstacles and transition easily between distinct bodies of water. This new class of vehicles can be referred as Unmanned Aerial-Aquatic Vehicles (UAAVs), and is capable of reaching distant locations rapidly, conducting measurements and returning to base. This greatly improves upon current solutions, which often involve integrating different types of vehicles (e.g. vessels releasing underwater vehicles), or rely on manpower (e.g. sensors dropped manually from ships). Thanks to recent research efforts, UAAVs are becoming more sophisticated and robust. Nonetheless numerous challenges remain to be addressed, and particularly dedicated control and sensing solutions are still scarce. This paper discusses challenges and opportunities in UAAV control, sensing and actuation. Following a brief overview of the state of the art, we elaborate on the requirements and challenges for the main types of robots and missions proposed in the literature to date, and highlight existing solutions where available. The concise but wide-ranging overview provided will constitute a useful starting point for researchers undertaking UAAV control work

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

Flight Control of a Millimeter-Scale Flapping-Wing Robot

Flying insects display remarkable maneuverability. Unlike typical airplanes, these insects are able to execute an evasive action, rapidly change their flight speed and direction, or leisurely land on flowers buffeted by wind, exhibiting aerodynamic feats unmatched by any state-of-the-art aircraft. By subtly tuning their wing motions, they generate and manipulate unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon that is the basis of their extraordinary maneuverability. Inspired by these tiny animals, scientists and engineers have pushed the boundaries of technology in many aspects, including meso-scale fabrication, electronics, and artificial intelligence, to develop autonomous millimeter-scale flapping-wing robots. In this thesis, we demonstrate, on real insect-scale robots, that using only an approximate model of the aerodynamics and flight dynamics in combination with conventional tools in nonlinear control, the inherently unstable flapping-wing robot can achieve steady hover. We present the development of flight controllers that gradually enhance the flight precision, allowing the robot to realize increasingly aggressive trajectories, including a highly acrobatic maneuver---perching on a vertical surface, as observed in its natural counterparts. We also demonstrate that these experiments lead to higher fidelity of in-flight aerodynamic models, strengthening our understanding of the dynamics of the robot and real insects.Engineering and Applied Science