Event Location: NSH 3002

Abstract: Miniature flapping flight systems hold great promise in matching the agility of their natural counterparts, bees, flies, and hummingbirds. Characterized by reciprocating wing motion, unsteady aerodynamics, and the ability to hover, insect-like flapping flight presents an interesting locomotion strategy capable of functioning at small size scales and is still a current focus of research. A vehicle with the capabilities of a fly would have potential use as miniature nodes in sensor networks, near invisible surveillance platforms, and mobile vehicles in search and rescue.

Designing and constructing such systems, however, is difficult. Beyond the limits of battery capacity and the difficulties of miniature sensor design, simply producing enough lift for liftoff is a challenge. A balance must be maintained between mechanical complexity, controllability, and weight. While more actuators generally lead to more controllable degrees of freedom, they also contribute significantly to system mass. In this proposal I outline a plan to develop a controllable flapping flight micro aerial vehicle robust to real world conditions and examine platform underactuation, controller development, and both active and passive stability.

Due to the desire to reduce weight and the number of actuators, system design is based on passive wing rotation. Current work includes the development of a controllable modular flapping flight system with two piezoelectric actuators. A large and small scale prototype is designed and constructed, with the smaller system having a lift-to-weight ratio of ~3/8. A PID controller and robust nonlinear controller are developed and tested on restricted degree of freedom rigs, the first such experimental control on a flapping wing vehicle. A light weight actuator based on shape memory polymer is developed an alternative controlling actuator for the system. Similar to the indirect flight and steering muscles of the fly, composite polymide film and shape memory polymer flexural hinges are shown to allow control of lift without change in signal to the main driving actuator. Active flexures in both the transmission and at the wing rotational joint are explored.

Committee:Metin Sitti, Chair

William Messner

Hartmut Geyer

Xinyan Deng, Purdue University