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Flying insects are capable of vision-based navigation in cluttered environments, reliably avoiding obstacles through fast and agile maneuvers, while being very efficient in the processing of visual stimuli. Meanwhile, autonomous micro air…
This work briefly covers our efforts to stabilize the flight dynamics of Northeastern's tailless bat-inspired micro aerial vehicle, Aerobat. Flapping robots are not new. A plethora of examples is mainly dominated by insect-style design…
This paper presents a lifting-wing multirotor UAV that allows long-range flight. The UAV features a lifting wing in a special mounting angle that works together with rotors to supply lift when it flies forward, achieving a reduction in…
Biological flapping wing fliers operate efficiently and robustly in a wide range of flight conditions and are a great source of inspiration to engineers. The unsteady aerodynamics of flapping-wings are dominated by large-scale vortical…
Dynamic soaring is a flying technique to exploit the energy available in wind shear layers, enabling potentially unlimited flight without the need for internal energy sources. We propose a framework for autonomous dynamic soaring with a…
The levels of agility and flight or swimming performance demonstrated by insects, birds, fish, and even some aquatic invertebrates, are often vastly superior to what even the most advanced human-engineered vehicles operating in the same…
Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are of great potential to serve as aerial access points (APs) owing to better aerodynamic performance and longer flight endurance. However, the inherent hovering feature of fixed-wing UAVs may…
Biological flying, gliding, and falling creatures are capable of extraordinary forms of inertial maneuvering: free-space maneuvering based on fine control of their multibody dynamics, as typified by the self-righting reflexes of cats.…
Hummingbirds and insects achieve outstanding flight performance by adapting their flapping motion to the flight requirements. Their wing kinematics can change from smooth flapping to highly dynamic waveforms, generating unsteady aerodynamic…
Flying animals resort to fast, large-degree-of-freedom motion of flapping wings, a key feature that distinguishes them from rotary or fixed-winged robotic fliers with limited motion of aerodynamic surfaces. However, flapping-wing…
Designing ground-aerial robots is challenging due to the increased actuation requirements which can lead to added weight and reduced locomotion efficiency. Morphobots mitigate this by combining actuators into multi-functional groups and…
Hovering insects are limited by their physiology and need to rotate their wings at the end of each back and forth motion to keep the wing's leading edge ahead of its trailing edge. The wing rotation at the end of each half-stroke pushes the…
This paper applies the UAV to the inspection of water diversion pipelines in hydropower stations. The diversion pipeline is an enclosed space, so the airflow disturbance caused by the rotation of the UAV blades and the strong air convection…
Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become standard tools in reconnaissance and surveying for both civilian and defense applications. In the future, UAVs will likely play a pivotal role in autonomous package delivery, but current…
Biological locomotion, observed in the flexible wings of birds and insects, bodies and fins of aquatic mammals and fishes, consists of their ability to morph the wings/fins. The morphing capability holds significance in the abilities of…
This paper presents the mathematical modeling, controller design, and flight-testing of an over-actuated Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) tiltwing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Based on simplified aerodynamics and first-principles, a…
In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for numerous inspection and video capture tasks. Manually controlling UAVs in the vicinity of obstacles is challenging, however, and poses a high risk of collisions. Even for…
This paper investigates an adaptive sliding-mode control for an integrated UAV autopilot and guidance system. First, a two-dimensional mathematical model of the system is derived by considering the incorporated lateral dynamics and relative…
This work presents an actuation framework for a bioinspired flapping drone called Aerobat. This drone, capable of producing dynamically versatile wing conformations, possesses 14 body joints and is tail-less. Therefore, in our robot, unlike…
Flight is a complicated task at small scales in part due to the ubiquitous unsteady air which contains it. Flying organisms deal with these difficulties using active and passive control mechanisms to steer their body motion. Body attitudes…