Collaborative Research: Dynamics and Control of Long Range Micro Air Vehicles Inspired by Monarch Butterflies

该合作研究项目将研究帝王蝶飞行的生物力学，目标是创造具有前所未有能力的工程飞行器。看似脆弱的帝王蝶是昆虫中飞行距离最长的。在北美和中美洲之间的年度迁徙中，单个帝王蝶可能会飞行4000公里。该项目将研究帝王蝶飞行的显著特征，包括拍打翅膀的缓慢速度，翅膀灵活性的影响，以及翅膀和身体运动的机械耦合。此外，帝王蝶在相对较高的高度飞行。滑翔机飞行员观察到帝王蝶在海拔1250千米的热流中翱翔，它们的越冬地在海拔3300千米的地方。这个项目将研究帝王蝶在类似大小的动物中无与伦比的范围是否在于大而灵活的翅膀，缓慢的拍动速度和高空飞行的结合。一个多学科团队将整合计算力学、生物实验、流体动力学和非线性控制方面的专业知识，以揭示高效君主飞行的物理机制。这些知识将被应用于创造变革性的，仿生微型飞行器与提高飞行效率和优越的飞行范围。飞行范围扩大的微型飞行器将能够长期监测环境危害，从而改善国民的生活质量。这些车辆将通过允许对大面积区域进行长期监视，并为搜索和救援提供远程侦察能力，从而加强国家安全。黑脉金斑蝶飞行的工程模型也将有助于了解它们的迁徙模式，从而支持对这种濒危物种的保护。该项目的主要科学目标是验证高海拔飞行是帝王蝶远程飞行特性的关键组成部分的假设。这将通过一系列的实验、计算和理论研究来实现。在模拟不同高度环境的低压舱内，一个动作捕捉系统将测量“君主”无人机的飞行动作。这些测量结果将通过柔性扑翼周围非定常粘性流动的计算流体动力学模拟进行验证，并结合代表胸腹变形的多体动力学模型。得到的空气动力学模型将由人工神经网络逼近进行实时动力学仿真，并在此基础上通过Floquet-Lypuanov理论构建非线性反馈控制系统。该计算动力学模型和反馈控制系统的保真度将通过帝王蝶启发的微型飞行器实验和蝴蝶的实际飞行测量来验证。这些将提供一个全面的分析低频扑动的铰接，灵活的多体系统代表了帝王蝶的显著飞行特性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Collaborative research project will study the biomechanics of Monarch butterfly flight, with the goal of creating engineered flight vehicles with unprecedented capabilities. The seemingly fragile Monarch exhibits the longest flight range among insects. Individual Monarch butterflies may travel up to four thousand kilometers during the annual migration between North America and Central America. This project will examine the distinguishing characteristics of Monarch butterfly flight, including the slow tempo of the flapping wings, the effects of wing flexibility, and the mechanical coupling of wing and body movements. Furthermore, the Monarch flies at relatively high altitudes. Glider pilots have observed Monarch butterflies soaring on thermal currents at altitudes up to 1,250 km, and their overwintering grounds are at altitudes of up to 3,300 km. This project will examine whether the unmatched range of the Monarch among similarly sized animals lies in the combination of large, flexible wings, slow flapping speeds, and high-altitude flight. A multidisciplinary team will integrate expertise in computational mechanics, biological experiments, fluid dynamics, and nonlinear controls to uncover the physical mechanism underlying the highly efficient Monarch flight. This knowledge will be applied to the creation of transformative, bio-inspired micro-air vehicles with enhanced flight efficiency and superior flight range. Micro-air vehicles with extended flight range will improve the national quality of life by enabling long-term monitoring of environmental hazards. These vehicles will enhance national security by allowing long-term surveillance of large areas, and by providing long-range reconnoitering capacity for search and rescue. Engineering models of Monarch flight will also contribute to the understanding of their migration patterns, and thereby support the conservation of this endangered species.The primary scientific objective of this project is to test the hypothesis that high-altitude flight is a critical component to the long-range flight characteristics of the Monarch butterfly. This will be achieved with a series of experimental, computational, and theoretical research efforts. The flight maneuvers of live Monarch will be measured by a motion capture system in a low-pressure chamber simulating the ambient environment at various altitudes. The measurements will be validated with computational fluid dynamics simulations for the unsteady viscous flows around flexible flapping wings integrated with a multibody dynamics model representing the thorax and the abdomen deformation. The resulting aerodynamic model will be approximated by an artificial neural network for real-time dynamic simulation, from which a nonlinear feedback control system will be constructed via Floquet-Lypuanov theory. The fidelity of the computational dynamic model and the feedback control system will be verified against experiments with Monarch butterfly inspired micro-air vehicle and live butterfly flight measurements. These will provide a comprehensive analysis of the low-frequency flapping dynamics of an articulated, flexible multibody system representing the remarkable flight characteristics of Monarch butterflies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.