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Wind dispersal of seeds is one essential mechanisms for plants to proliferate and to invade new territories. In this paper we present a methodology that combines 3D-printing, a minimal theoretical model and experiments to determine the…
We present direct numerical simulations of a novel concept for a micro-scale wind turbine, inspired in the mechanics of the auto-rotation of winged seeds. In this nature-inspired concept the turbine blades have two degrees of freedom: the…
In this report, we present the theory on aerodynamics of quadrotors using the well established momentum and blade element theories. From a robotics perspective, the theoretical development of the models for thrust and horizontal forces and…
We develop and apply a novel shape optimization exemplified for a two-blade rotor with respect to the figure of merit ($FM$). This topologically assisted optimization (TAO) contains two steps. First a global evolutionary optimization is…
With more efficient structures, last trends in aeronautics have witnessed an increased flexibility of wings, calling for adequate design and optimization approaches. To correctly model the coupled physics, aerostructural optimization has…
Tried-and-true flapping wing robot simulation is essential in developing flapping wing mechanisms and algorithms. This paper presents a novel application-oriented flapping wing platform, highly compatible with various mechanical designs and…
In this contribution we investigate in mathematical modeling and efficient simulation of biological cells with a particular emphasis on effective modeling of structural properties that originate from active forces generated from…
In trajectory planning and control design for unmanned air vehicles, highly simplified models are typically used to represent the vehicle dynamics and the operating environment. The goal of this work is to perform real-time, but realistic…
Flapping wing flight is a challenging dynamical problem and is also a very fascinating subject to study in the field of biomimetic robotics. A Bat, in particular, has a very articulated armwing mechanism with high degrees-of-freedom and…
Aerodynamic shape optimization has established itself as a valuable tool in the engineering design process to achieve highly efficient results. A central aspect for such approaches is the mapping from the design parameters which encode the…
The process of self-morphing in curved surfaces found in nature, such as with the growth of flowers and leaves, has generated interest in the study of self-morphing bilayers, which has been used in many soft robots or switchers. However,…
A monoped's jump height and energy consumption depend on both, its mechanical design and control strategy. Existing co-design frameworks typically optimize for either maximum height or minimum energy, neglecting their trade-off. They also…
State estimation and control is a well-studied problem in conventional aerial vehicles such as multi-rotors. But multi-rotors, while versatile, are not suitable for all applications. Due to turbulent airflow from ground effects,…
Flying animals, such as bats, fly through their fluidic environment as they create air jets and form wake structures downstream of their flight path. Bats, in particular, dynamically morph their highly flexible and dexterous armwing to…
Aerial manipulation (AM) expands UAV capabilities beyond passive observation to contact-based operations at high altitudes and in otherwise inaccessible environments. Although recent advances show promise, most AM systems are developed in…
Airfoil aerodynamic optimization based on single-point design may lead to poor off-design behaviors. Multipoint optimization that considers the off-design flow conditions is usually applied to improve the robustness and expand the flight…
This paper presents a method for simultaneous optimization of the outer shape and internal topology of aircraft wings, with the objective of minimizing drag subject to lift and compliance constraints for multiple load cases. The physics are…
Aerodynamic inverse design can improve vehicle and aircraft efficiency, but practical design rarely seeks performance alone: vehicle refinement must reduce drag while preserving visual features linked to design language, brand recognition…
We study the power of uncontrolled random molecular movement in the nubot model of self-assembly. The nubot model is an asynchronous nondeterministic cellular automaton augmented with rigid-body movement rules (push/pull, deterministically…
Spherical rolling robots have garnered significant attention in the field of mobile robotics for applications such as inspection and space exploration. Designing underactuated rolling robots poses challenges in achieving multi-directional…