Flapping flight for biomimetic robotic insects: part II-flight control design

TLDR

The paper designs flight control algorithms for flapping‑wing micromechanical flying insects (MFIs). It adopts a top‑down hierarchical architecture inspired by insect neuromotor feedback, formulates high‑frequency periodic control of the underactuated system, approximates time‑varying aerodynamics with a time‑invariant model via averaging theory and biomimetic wing trajectories, and implements a periodic proportional output feedback law identified from on‑board sensor data. Simulations with realistic sensor and actuator models confirm stable hovering flight.

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design of the flight control algorithms for flapping wing micromechanical flying insects (MFIs). Inspired by the sensory feedback and neuromotor structure of insects, we propose a similar top-down hierarchical architecture to achieve high performance despite the MFIs' limited on-board computational resources. The flight stabilization problem is formulated as high-frequency periodic control of an underactuated system. In particular, we provide a methodology to approximate the time-varying dynamics caused by the aerodynamic forces with a time-invariant model using averaging theory and a biomimetic parametrization of the wing trajectories. This approximation leads to a simpler dynamical model that can be identified using experimental data from the on-board sensors and the voltage inputs to the wing actuators. The overall control law is a periodic proportional output feedback. Simulations, including sensor and actuator models, demonstrate stable flight in hovering mode.