MANEUVERABILITY-OPTIMUM WING KINEMATICS OF FLAPPING MAVS NEAR HOVER

摘要

To date, there have been no trials to provide maneuverability-optimum wing kinematics for flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles. Although it is usually aimed, in the flapping flight control literature, to have wing kinematics that result in full control authority of the averaged dynamics, there has not been a constructive technique to determine such kinematics. In general, the shapes of the kinematic functions are assumed from the outset and their level of control authority is assessed at a later stage. In this work, we the calculus of variations as a constructive technique to determine the optimum wing motion in a horizontal stroke plane for enhanced maneuverability of flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles near hover. We set the maneuverability performance index to be the cycle-average forward acceleration of the body. As such, the resulting kinematics is well-suited for fastest transition from hovering to forward flight. The calculus of variations techniques allowed us to obtain an optimal maneuverability reference against which the maneuverability indices of other proposed kinematics may be compared. As such, the maximum attainable forward acceleration for a given vehicle design is obtained along with the kinematics that realize that maximum acceleration. The proposed approach can be used to optimize other maneuverability performance indexes such as other linear and rotational accelerations.