Dynamics and Control of Hummingbird-Inspired Aerial Robots

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The goal of this project is to advance the state of the art in the dynamics and control of flapping-wing flight, enabling creation of a next generation of miniature flying robots, with robustness and agility comparable to natural flyers. Specifically, this project has the goal of creating flying robots with the remarkable flying qualities found in hummingbirds. The insights to enable these advances will be obtained from analytical and computational studies of the role played by wing flexibility in hummingbird flight mechanics, which will be validated experimentally on a hummingbird-like flying robot. Flying robots with these capabilities would play pivotal roles in missions such as search and rescue, environmental monitoring, and emergency response. The project will leverage the inherently intriguing aspect of the robotic hummingbird to cultivate an engaging environment for creative, rigorous application of aerodynamics, dynamics and control theory to motivate a diverse population of students to pursue STEM education and careers. The PI will organize lab visits, summer camps and participate as a guest speaker in K-12 outreach programs for minority and women students and provide research experiences for aerospace graduate and undergraduate students.This project will improve understanding of the flight dynamics, maneuverability, and disturbance rejection capabilities of realistic hummingbird-like flapping-wing robots through fully nonlinear simulations and flight experiments. Results of the project will include the creation and experimental validation of a fully nonlinear 6-DOF flight dynamics model of a hummingbird-like flapping-wing robot with flexible wings, comprehensive nonlinear simulations and flight tests to identify critical design parameters for stability and controllability of a flapping-wing robot in hover, and control design for maneuverability and disturbance rejection based on identified linear time invariant models. The project will address the role of passive wing-twist in maneuverability, the effect on stability of dynamic coupling between large unsteady wing deflections and the resulting aerodynamic and inertial forces, the role of center of gravity location in stability while hovering, the effect of nonlinearities and modeling uncertainties, and the relation between the flapping wing mechanics and wind gust response. The outcomes will provide increased understanding of the aerodynamic and control mechanisms of natural flight, and show how these mechanisms may be applied to dramatically improve the maneuverability and gust-tolerance capabilities of the next generation of bio-inspired micro air vehicles.