Steering and Horizontal Motion Control in Insect-Inspired Flapping-Wing MAVs: The Tunable Impedance Approach

Inspired by insect flight, flapping-wing microaerial vehicles (FWMAVs) are an ongoing design problem, posing exceptional challenges in morphological construction, force production, and control methodology. Some impressive initial results have emerged from work focused on generating sufficient lift force for levitation or vertical acceleration [1]; however, effective methods for motion control remain an open problem. In this work, we propose and analyze a simplified approach to the FWMAV maneuvering problem that 1) focuses on motion control and steering in the horizontal plane and 2) employs a wing design that relies on tunable passive dynamics to set the angle of attack. Our simulated experiments with this method demonstrate an exceptional capability in handling pitch tracking and steering maneuvers, even in presence of measurement noise. We compare the performance of our approach with that of another promising technique for steering: the "split cycle" [2]. Simulation results suggest that in our approach, steering maneuvers and planar motion are both faster and smoother. Furthermore, a passive dynamic control approach in FWMAV proves to have considerably lower bandwidth requirements. We will discuss how this is advantageous when designing a real FWMAV.