Autopilots for Ultra Lightweight Robotic Birds: Automatic Altitude Control and System Integration of a Sub-10 g Weight Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle

摘要

This article discusses the altitude control of a flapping- wing micro aerial vehicle (MAV). Although the power requirement can be high for suboptimal designs, flapping flight can be an efficient way to transport a mass over a distance [1]. For example, an optimized flapping flight can require 27% less aerodynamic power than its optimal steady-flight counterpart at the scale smaller than a bird [2]. This potential for increasing efficiency as well as increased maneuverability has motivated a renewed interest in flapping flight among researchers. However, it is difficult to understand the autonomous flight of bird-like micro robots due to limited sensing payload capacity. This article describes the first step in tackling this problem, which is the automatic altitude control of such a vehicle.