Attitude and Position Control of a Flapping Micro Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

Inspired from the natural flight, the flapping Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) combine the advantages of the rotary and fixed airfoils. They are able to achieve vertical taking off and landing, stationary flight and are characterized by their high maneuverability, soft noise and use the unsteady aerodynamics in order to develop higher lift force and theoretically reduce their energy consumption. They also get benefit from their biomimetic shape in order to execute discrete missions. The main disadvantages of such airfoils remain the complexity of analyzing the mechanisms adopted by insects during flight and maneuvers (Dudley, 2002) besides the technological reproduction of these techniques on flying robots (Hedrick & Daniel, 2006). Their development is constrained by the necessity of using low computational embedded systems, tiny sensors and actuators to ensure the free autonomous flight. Moreover, the conventional aerodynamic theory, well known for fixed aircrafts, fails for flapping wings airfoils due to the low Reynolds numbers and the influence of the unsteady airflows on the wings besides the high degrees of under actuation. Micro aerial vehicles may be used for numerous indoor and outdoor civil applications (monitoring buildings, forests, cities, seism or high voltage lines, preventing forests fires, inspecting high monuments, intervening in narrow and dangerous environments for rescuing, gaming), military applications where its discretion thanks to its biomimetic behaviour is an advantage (spying and investigating) or even for exploring other planets like Mars (Thakoor et al., 2003). Researches in flapping flight domain attract biology, aeronautic, robotic and avionic communities. The progress in microelectronic technologies, materials, sensors, actuators, embedded computational systems, communication tools, etc. is helping the feasibility and development of these aircrafts. Therefore, flapping micro aerial vehicles are in a full rise nowadays; different projects are held all over the world. The present work lies within the scope of the French project OVMI1 (Objet Volant Mimant l'Insecte) financed by the national agency for scientific research. It