Aditya A. Paranjape

PDE Boundary Control for Flexible Articulated Wings on a Robotic Aircraft

This paper presents a boundary control formulation for distributed parameter systems described by partial differential equations (PDEs) and whose output is given by a spatial integral of weighted functions of the state. This formulation is directly applicable to the control of small robotic aircraft with articulated flexible wings, where the output of interest is the net aerodynamic force or moment. The deformation of flexible wings can be controlled by actuators that are located at the root or the tip of the wing. The problem of designing a tracking controller for wing twist is addressed using a combination of PDE backstepping for feedback stabilization and feed-forward trajectory planning. We also design an adaptive tracking controller for wing tip actuators. For wing bending, we present a novel control scheme that is based on a two-stage perturbation observer. A trajectory planning-based feed-forward tracker is designed using only one component of the observer whose dynamics are homogeneous and amenable to trajectory planning. The two components, put together, estimate the external forces and unmodeled system dynamics. The effectiveness of the proposed controllers for twist and bending is demonstrated by simulations. This paper also reports experimental validation of the perturbation-observer-based controller for beam bending.

Flight mechanics of a tailless articulated wing aircraft

This paper investigates the flight mechanics of a micro aerial vehicle without a vertical tail in an effort to reverse-engineer the agility of avian flight. The key to stability and control of such a tailless aircraft lies in the ability to control the incidence angles and dihedral angles of both wings independently. The dihedral angles can be varied symmetrically on both wings to control aircraft speed independently of the angle of attack and flight path angle, while asymmetric dihedral can be used to control yaw in the absence of a vertical stabilizer. It is shown that wing dihedral angles alone can effectively regulate sideslip during rapid turns and generate a wide range of equilibrium turn rates while maintaining a constant flight speed and regulating sideslip. Numerical continuation and bifurcation analysis are used to compute trim states and assess their stability. This paper lays the foundation for design and stability analysis of a flapping wing aircraft that can switch rapidly from flapping to gliding flight for agile manoeuvring in a constrained environment.

Use of Bifurcation and Continuation Methods for Aircraft Trim and Stability Analysis - A State-of-the-Art

The bifurcation and continuation methodology has evolved over the last two decades into a powerful tool for the analysis of trim and stability problems in aircraft flight dynamics. Over the years, bifurcation methods have been employed to deal with a variety of problems in aircraft dynamics, such as predicting high angle of attack behavior, especially spin, and studying instabilities in rolling maneuvers. The bifurcation methodology has served as a tool for the design of flight control systems, and is promising to be a useful tool in the aircraft design, simulation, testing, and evaluation process. In the present paper, we describe the state-of-the-art in the use of bifurcation and continuation methods for the analysis of aircraft trim and stability with a few illustrative examples. Both the standard and extended bifurcation analysis procedures are discussed and typical results for instabilities in high-α flight and in inertia-coupled roll maneuvers are shown. This is followed by several problems in nonlinear flight dynamics where bifurcation and continuation methods have been fruitfully applied to yield effective solutions. Finally, the use of bifurcation theory to arrive at analytical instability criteria is demonstrated for the aircraft roll coupling and wing rock problems. 76 references have been cited in the text.

Dynamics and Performance of Tailless Micro Aerial Vehicle with Flexible Articulated Wings

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the performance and stability of a tailless micro aerial vehicle with flexible articulated wings. The dihedral angles can be varied symmetrically on both wings to control the aircraft speed independently of the angle of attack and flight-path angle, while an asymmetric dihedral setting can be used to control yaw in the absence of a vertical tail.Anonlinear aero-elastic model is derived, and it is used to study the steady-state performance and flight stability of the micro aerial vehicle. The concept of the effective dihedral is introduced, which allows for a unified treatment of rigid and flexible wing aircraft. It also identifies the amount of elasticity that is necessary to obtain tangible performance benefits over a rigid wing. The feasibility of using axial tension to stiffen the wing is discussed, and, at least in the context of a linear model, it is shown that adding axial tension is effective but undesirable. The turning performance of an micro aerial vehicle with flexible wings is compared to an otherwise identical micro aerial vehicle with rigid wings. The wing dihedral alone can be varied asymmetrically to perform rapid turns and regulate sideslip. The maximum attainable turn rate for a given elevator setting, however, does not increase unless antisymmetric wing twisting is employed.

Novel Dihedral-Based Control of Flapping-Wing Aircraft With Application to Perching

We describe the design of an aerial robot inspired by birds and the underlying theoretical developments leading to novel control and closed-loop guidance algorithms for a perching maneuver. A unique feature of this robot is that it uses wing articulation to control the flight path angle as well as the heading angle. It lacks a vertical tail for improved agility, which results in unstable lateral-directional dynamics. New closed-loop motion planning algorithms with guaranteed stability are obtained by rewriting the flight dynamic equations in the spatial domain rather than as functions of time, after which dynamic inversion is employed. It is shown that nonlinear dynamic inversion naturally leads to proportional-integral-derivative controllers, thereby providing an exact method for tuning the gains. The capabilities of the proposed bioinspired robot design and its novel closed-loop perching controller have been successfully demonstrated with perched landings on a human hand.

Motion primitives and 3D path planning for fast flight through a forest

This paper presents two families of motion primitives for enabling fast, agile flight through a dense obstacle field. The first family of primitives consists of a time-delay dependent 3D circular path between two points in space and the control inputs required to fly the path. In particular, the control inputs are calculated using algebraic equations which depend on the flight parameters and the location of the waypoint. Moreover, the transition between successive maneuver states, where each state is defined by a unique combination of constant control inputs, is modeled rigorously as an instantaneous switch between the two maneuver states following a time delay which is directly related to the agility of the robotic aircraft. The second family consists of aggressive turn-around (ATA) maneuvers which the robot uses to retreat from impenetrable pockets of obstacles. The ATA maneuver consists of an orchestrated sequence of three sets of constant control inputs. The duration of the first segment is used to optimize the ATA for the spatial constraints imposed by the turning volume. The motion primitives are validated experimentally and implemented in a simulated receding horizon control (RHC)-based motion planner. The paper concludes with inverse-design pointers derived from the primitives.

Experimental Demonstration of Perching by an Articulated Wing MAV

This paper presents an experimental demonstration of perching by a micro aerial vehicle (MAV) equipped with articulated wings. A novel feature of the MAV considered in this paper is that wing dihedral, controlled independently on both wings, is used for yaw stability and control as well as for maintaining the flight path angle. Yaw stability and control are essential for perching in tightly constrained places. The experiments described in this paper were conducted indoors and flight parameters are measured using the VICON motion capture system.

A Flight Mechanics-Centric Review of Bird-Scale Flapping Flight

This paper reviews the flight mechanics and control of birds and bird-size aircraft. It is intended to fill a niche in the current survey literature which focuses primarily on the aerodynamics, flight dynamics and control of insect scale flight. We review the flight mechanics from first principles and summarize some recent results on the stability and control of birds and bird-scale aircraft. Birds spend a considerable portion of their flight in the gliding (i.e., non-flapping) phase. Therefore, we also review the stability and control of gliding flight, and particularly those aspects which are derived from the unique control features of birds.

Control Law Design for Perching an Agile MAV with Articulated Wings

This paper explores the use of variable wing dihedral and variable wing twist (in conjunction with a conventional horizontal elevator) to control an aircraft performing a perching maneuver. A choice of controller architecture wherein the dihedral is employed in the forward path and the elevator and twist are employed in the feedback path, is considered. The aircraft is modeled as a multivariable linear time-varying system. A specific perching trajectory is considered; and the open-loop aircraft is longitudinally unstable for a segment of this perching trajectory and lateral-directionally unstable for the entire perching trajectory. A multivariable time-varying controller is designed to efficiently stabilize the aircraft as well as reject longitudinal-lateral-directional wind disturbances, while closely tracking the reference perching trajectory.

Analytical Criterion for Aircraft Spin Susceptibility

from the point of view of bifurcation theory. Two versions of an analytical criterion for predicting spin susceptibility are derived and their use is described. The rst version requires plotting the zero crossings of a simple algebraic equation in angle of attack, while the second involves plotting the locus of zeros of a single algebraic equation in two variables (angle of attack and yaw rate) { both equally quick and easy to use. Both versions of the criterion are tested with data for the F-18 HARV aircraft and they show an excellent match with spin prediction from exact numerical computations.