Vortex Formation and Force Generation Mechanisms of the DelFly II in Hovering Flight

This paper addresses the unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms in the hovering flight of the DelFly II flapping-wing Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV). Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (Stereo-PIV) were carried out around the wings at a high framing rate. Thrust-force was measured to investigate the relation between the vortex dynamics and the...

Lisa-S 2.8g autopilot for GPS-based flight of MAVs

Recent advances in sensor miniaturization have enabled the development of a miniaturized fully functional autopilot. In this article, the open hardware and open software Paparazzi-UAV Lisa-S micro autopilot is presented, weighing only 2.8 grams and measuring 2 by 2 centimeters. It incorporates 2-way telemetry with a ground station, a Spektrum...

Actuator Fault Detection and Diagnosis for Quadrotors

This paper presents a method for fault detection and diagnosis of actuator loss of effectiveness for a quadrotor helicopter. This paper not only considers the detection of the actuator loss of effectiveness faults, but also addresses the diagnosis of the faults. The detection and estimation of the faults are performed by the Augmented Extended...

Modelling of a Hybrid UAV Using Test Flight Data

The concept of an aircraft capable of both hover as well as fast forward flight (hybrid) has recently been implemented on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Hybrid UAVs combine hover capability with long range and endurance. As UAVs are often required to operate without human intervention, there is a call for autonomous guidance of hybrid UAVs....

Effect of chordwise deformation on unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms in hovering flapping flight

A three-dimensional simulation of hovering flapping wings was performed using an immersed boundary method. This was done to investigate the effects of chordwise wing deformation on three important unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms found in flapping flight, namely Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) shedding, wake capture and clap and fling. A wing was...

Determination of trim curves for a flapping-wing MAV

This paper presents the results of a series of flight tests conducted in order to assess the steady-state flight characteristics and basic control behaviour of the DelFly, a flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle (FWMAV). Flights were conducted in an indoor motion tracking facility and included steady-level flight at a range of different velocities...

Study of design parameters of flapping-wings

As one of the most important components of a flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV), the design of an energy-efficient flapping-wing has been a research interest recently. Research on insect flight from different perspectives has been carried out, mainly with regard to wing morphology, flapping kinematics, and unsteady aerodynamics. However,...

An Ecological Approach to the Supervisory Control of UAV Swarms

This research employs ecological interface design to improve the human machine interface of an existing ground control station for the supervisory control of UAV swarms. As a case study, a general ground surveillance mission with four UAVs is envisioned. An analysis of the swarming work domain is performed to generate a reduced set of means-end...

Wing flexibility effects in clap-and-fling

The work explores the use of time-resolved tomographic PIV measurements to study a flapping-wing model, the related vortex generation mechanisms and the effect of wing flexibility on the clap-and-fling movement in particular. An experimental setup is designed and realized in a water tank by use of a single wing model and a mirror plate to...

Aerodynamic analysis of the wing flexibility and the clap-and-peel motion of the hovering DelFly II

In this paper, the influence of wing flexibility and the 'clap-and-peel' motion (one versus two wings) on the upward (lifting) force in hover is studied. CFD simulations based on the ALE Navier-Stokes equations together with radial basis function mesh interpolation are used. For the 'clap-and-peel' motion an immersed symmetry plane is introduced...

BioMAV: Bio-inspired intelligence for autonomous flight

This paper aims to contribute to research on biologically inspired micro air vehicles in two ways: (i) it explores a novel repertoire of behavioral modules which can be controlled through ?nite state machines (FSM) and (ii) elementary movement detectors (EMD) are combined with a center/surround edge detection algorithm to yield improved edge...

Analysis of tail effects in flapping flight

Numerical simulations have been performed to examine the interference effects between an upstream flapping airfoil and a downstream stationary airfoil in a tandem configuration at a Reynolds number of 1000, which is around the regime of small flapping micro aerial vehicles. The objective is to investigate the effect of the distance of the tail...