CAREER: Theory and Practice of Autonomous Soaring for Aerial Robots

小型和微型无人驾驶飞行器（UAV）是许多大型飞行器风险太大或不可行的任务的理想选择。然而，小尺寸导致性能限制：车载能量存储和感测有效载荷的能力降低，并且粘性力是阻力的主要因素，使得高效车辆的设计变得困难。鸟类和昆虫面临着类似的问题，它们已经进化出飞行策略来克服与小尺寸相关的挑战。这项研究旨在开发规划和控制算法，使小型和微型无人机能够从周围大气中提取能量：像鸟类和人类滑翔机飞行员一样，它们将能够翱翔。有三个目标：（1）开发规划算法，该算法可以考虑飞行器运动学/动力学和环境因素（如风）对轨迹可行性和成本的复杂影响;（2）开发使用智能规划和控制算法的飞行器，以克服与其物理约束相关的挑战;（3）实现新的科学任务。此外，这里开发的规划技术将适用于其他情况下的机器人规划在复杂的动态和环境conditions.The最终目标的研究是使机器人飞机跟踪迁移猛禽在较长的距离和时间。认识到这是一个雄心勃勃的目标，需要在机器人研究的其他领域以及智能规划和控制方面取得进展，本研究确定了几项科学任务，这些任务在短期和中期内由具有飞行能力的小型无人机实现。这些科学任务将与宾夕法尼亚州立大学气象部门的研究人员和鹰山保护区Acopian保护学习中心的研究人员合作进行。

Small and mini uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) are ideal for many missions which are too risky or infeasible for larger vehicles. However, small size results in performance limitations: there is reduced capacity for on-board energy storage and sensing payload, and viscous forces are a large contributor to drag, making design of efficient vehicles difficult. Birds and insects are faced with similar problems, and they have evolved flight strategies to overcome the challenges associated with small size.This research aims to develop planning and control algorithms that will enable small and mini UAVs to extract energy from the surrounding atmosphere: like birds and human glider pilots, they will be able to soar. There are three aims: (1) the development of planning algorithms that can account for the complex effects of vehicle kinematics/dynamics and environmental factors such as wind on the feasibility and costs of a trajectory; (2) the development of a vehicle that uses intelligent planning and control algorithms to overcome the challenges associated with its physical constraints; (3) enabling novel science missions. Further, the planning techniques developed here will be applicable to other instances of robot planning under complex dynamic and environmental conditions.The ultimate goal of this research is to enable a robotic aircraft to track a migrating raptor over extended distances and time. Recognizing that this is an ambitious goal, requiring advances in other areas of robotics research as well as intelligent planning and control, this research identifies several science missions that are enabled in the short and medium term by a soaring-capable mini-UAV. These science missions will be undertaken in collaboration with researchers at Penn State's meteorology department and researchers at the Acopian Center for Conservation Learning at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.