Related papers: Flapping strategies for flying formations
Phased formations of satellites provide an important means of keeping multiple satellites in close proximity without becoming dangerously close to one another. In order to minimize the amount of propellant necessary to keep a set of…
Topological Interlocking assemblies are arrangements of blocks kinematically constrained by a fixed frame, such that all rigid body motions of each block are constrained only by its permanent contact with other blocks and the frame. In the…
We study the propulsive properties of rectangular and rhombic lattices of flapping plates at O(10--100) Reynolds numbers in incompressible flow. We vary five parameters: flapping amplitude, frequency (or Reynolds number), horizontal and…
Soaring birds gain energy from stable ascending currents or shear. However, it remains unclear whether energy loss due to drag can be overcome by extracting work from transient turbulent fluctuations. We designed numerical simulations of…
Thermal soaring enables birds to perform cost-efficient flights during foraging or migration trips. Yet, although all soaring birds exploit vertical winds effectively, this group contains species that vary strongly in their morphologies.…
Flapping wings are a bio-inspired method to produce lift and thrust in aerial robots, leading to quiet and efficient motion. The advantages of this technology are safety and maneuverability, and physical interaction with the environment,…
Asymmetric obstacles can be exploited to direct the motion and induce sorting of run-and-tumbling particles. In this work, we show that flocking particles which follow the Vicsek model aligning rules experience a collective trapping in the…
The dynamics of a cantilever plate clamped at its trailing edge and placed at a moderate angle ($\alpha \leq 30^{\circ}$) to a uniform flow are investigated experimentally and numerically, and a large experimental data set is provided. The…
Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are subjected to platform motion induced by wind and wave loads. The oscillatory movement trigger vortex instabilities, modifying the wake structure, influencing the flow reaching downstream wind…
Flapping wings are the primary means by which dragonflies generate forces, but they are susceptible to damage due to their inherent fragility. The damage results in a reduction in wing area and a distortion of the original wing, which in…
Over the past few decades, the research community has been interested in the study of multi-agent systems and their emerging collective dynamics. These systems are all around us in nature, like bacterial colonies, fish schools, bird flocks,…
In this paper we propose an algorithm for stabilizing circular formations of fixed-wing UAVs with constant speeds. The algorithm is based on the idea of tracking circles with different radii in order to control the inter-vehicle phases with…
Individuals traversing challenging obstacles are faced with a decision: they can adopt traversal strategies that minimally disrupt their normal locomotion patterns or they can adopt strategies that substantially alter their gait, conferring…
This work demonstrates preliminary results on energy harvesting from a linearly stable flutter-type system with circulatory friction forces. Harmonic external forcing is applied to study the energy flow in the steady sliding configuration.…
We study formation control problems. Our approach is to let a group of systems maximize their pairwise distances whilst bringing them all to a given submanifold, determining the shape of the formation. The algorithm we propose allows to…
The self-assembly of functionalized (patchy) particles with directional interactions into target structures is still a challenge, despite the significant experimental advances on their synthesis. The self-assembly pathways are typically…
Initially straight slender elastic rods with geometrically constrained ends buckle and form stable two-dimensional shapes when compressed by bringing the ends together. It is also known that beyond a critical value of the pre-stress,…
It has been a long-standing problem how schooling fish optimize their motion by exploiting the vortices shed by the others. A recent experimental study showed that a pair of fish reduce energy consumption by matching the phases of their…
This paper addresses the leader-follower flocking problem with a moving leader for networked Lagrange systems with parametric uncertainties under a proximity graph. Here a group of followers move cohesively with the moving leader to…
In systems control, the dynamics of a system are governed by modulating its inputs to achieve a desired outcome. For example, to control the thrust of a quad-copter propeller the controller modulates its rotation rate, relying on a…