Bird-Inspired Gust Soaring for Unmanned Air Vehicles

受鸟启发的无人机阵风翱翔

• 批准号: 2437318
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2437318
• 关键词: Bird; Inspired; Gust; Soaring; Unmanned

The range and endurance of small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) is currently hindered by their limited battery capacity. Many SUAVs have a maximum flight time of up to ninety minutes, severely restricting their utility and preventing their benefits from being realised in fields such as disaster response, remote sensing (e.g. for agriculture and environmental monitoring) and reconnaissance. By performing particular manoeuvres to interact with local airflow appropriately, these vehicles can increase their potential or air-relative kinetic energy (the energy available to do useful work [1]), enabling them to fly further and for longer; this energy gain flight is known as 'soaring'. Updrafts of air form one condition for soaring flight (known as 'static soaring'); a bird can gain a 'free ride' to higher altitudes by flying in a thermal, for example, increasing its potential energy. Energy can also be extracted in nonuniform wind fields, where the wind direction and strength change in space and time, by utilising wind gradients - a technique known as 'gradient soaring'. Albatross are famous for exploiting this technique within the strong wind gradients above the ocean (in the atmospheric boundary layer) to achieve long-distance low-energy-expenditure travel. Automatic control systems for exploiting updrafts and large-scale gradients have received significant research, however these energy sources are not applicable for vehicles unable to deviate substantially from their desired flight path to exploit them, due for example to noise abatement procedures or a requirement to keep out of sight. Birds can be observed to gain energy en route through appropriate reactions to stochastic gradients - small-scale spatial gradients, caused for example by buildings, and gusts (gradients in time). This is known as 'gust soaring'. The goal of this research is to develop new gust soaring control algorithms for SUAVs in order to extend their range and endurance. The research will particularly focus on urban environments, where small-scale spatial gradients are common due to the complex interactions between the wind and structures.

目前，小型无人机 (SUAV) 的航程和续航能力因其有限的电池容量而受到阻碍。许多 SUAV 的最长飞行时间长达 90 分钟，这严重限制了它们的实用性，并阻碍了它们在灾害响应、遥感（例如用于农业和环境监测）和侦察等领域发挥作用。通过执行特定的机动操作以适当地与当地气流相互作用，这些飞行器可以增加其潜在的或与空气相关的动能（可用于做有用功的能量[1]），使它们能够飞得更远、更长时间；这种能量增益飞行被称为“翱翔”。空气上升气流形成翱翔飞行的条件之一（称为“静态翱翔”）；例如，鸟类可以通过在热气流中飞行来“搭便车”到更高的高度，从而增加其势能。通过利用风梯度（一种称为“梯度飙升”的技术），还可以在风向和强度随空间和时间变化的不均匀风场中提取能量。信天翁因在海洋上方（大气边界层）的强风梯度中利用这种技术来实现长距离低能量消耗旅行而闻名。利用上升气流和大尺度梯度的自动控制系统已经得到了重要的研究，然而，这些能源不适用于无法大幅偏离其所需飞行路径来利用它们的飞行器，例如由于噪音消除程序或需要保持在视线之外。可以观察到鸟类通过对随机梯度的适当反应来获得能量，随机梯度是小规模的空间梯度，例如由建筑物和阵风（时间梯度）引起的。这被称为“阵风飙升”。这项研究的目标是为 SUAV 开发新的阵风飙升控制算法，以扩展其航程和续航力。该研究将特别关注城市环境，由于风与结构之间复杂的相互作用，小尺度的空间梯度很常见。