Sharif Digital Repository

To evaluate the propulsion system capabilities of a Flapping Micro Air Vehicle (FMAV), a new aeroelastic model of a typical flexible FMAV is developed, utilizing the Euler-Bernoulli torsion beam and quasi steady aerodynamic model. The new model accounts for all existing complex interactions between the mass, inertia, elastic properties, aerodynamic loading, flapping amplitude and frequency of the FMAV, as well as the effects of several geometric and design parameters. To validate the proposed theoretical model, a typical FMAV, as well as an instrumented test stand for the online measurement of forces, flapping angle and power consumption, has been constructed. The experimental results are... 

The flying agility demonstrated by dragonflies is accomplished by means of complex aerodynamic forces produced by flapping their four wings arranged in a tandem configuration. The current study presents a novel tandem flapping wing mechanism for a biomimetic air vehicle that was designed and manufactured to experimentally investigate the aerodynamic forces. By optimizing the configuration and using spatial network analysis, it is shown that the designed structure can flap the wings in a linear up–down stroke motion and is capable of maintaining good consistency and aerodynamic performance. Such a mechanism could be used in a future biomimetic micro air vehicle (BMAV) design. The mechanism... 

Integrated guidance and control of an elastic flight vehicle based on constrained robust model predictive control is proposed. The design is based on a partial state feedback control law that minimizes a cost function within the framework of linear matrix inequalities. It is shown that the solution of the defined optimization problem stabilizes the nonlinear plant. Nonlinear kinematics and dynamics are taken into account, and internal stability of the closed-loop nonlinear system is guaranteed. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed integrated guidance and control against non-maneuvering and weaving targets are evaluated using computer simulations  

This paper describes latest results obtained on modeling, simulation and controller design of an insect-like Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FWMAV). Because of the highly nonlinear and time varying nature of insect flight and the inability to find an equilibrium point, linearization of the model without compromising the accuracy is not possible. Therefore, to address the problem of designing a controller capable of stabilizing and controlling the FWMAV around a hovering point, a metaheuristic optimization approach is proposed, based on the time averaging theorem. The results show that a controller, designed using the proposed method, is capable of stabilizing the FWMAV effectively around... 

The development and the implementation of a new guidance law are addressed for a six dimensional trajectory tracking problem, three dimensions for position tracking and three dimensions for velocity tracking, of a micro air vehicle. To generate the desired trajectory a virtual leader is defined which is moved in space. In the guidance law, position and velocity feedbacks are used by fuzzy controllers to generate two acceleration commands. Then, a fuzzy coordinator is applied to coordinate the acceleration commands. Nonlinear six-degree-of-freedom equations of motion are used to model the vehicle dynamics. Also, a bank-to-turn acceleration autopilot for vehicle is considered to follow the... 

A major issue required to enhance the autonomy level of unmanned vehicles is real-time motion planning. In this context, optimal trajectories need to be generated online considering the vehicle's dynamic potentials and constraints. However, autonomous air vehicles often need to plan and execute their missions with varying objectives that may even be dictated in flight. Therefore, the current study introduces and focuses on the new concept of variable-objective motion planning. In this regard, a new dynamic multi-objective heuristic optimization algorithm is developed for path and motion planning of autonomous air vehicles in presence of deterministic terrain obstacles as well as random... 

This study attempts to present a new and comprehensive cycle for the design of fixed wing micro air vehicles. The idea is to propose a complete cycle containing all micro air vehicles design subjects such as aerodynamics, stability, structure, and navigation. The main aim of the cycle is to decrease the designing time for an optimum design. In this method, the sizing process is started simultaneously, which involves the following cases: specification of mission and aviation plan; determination of planform and aspect ratio; constraint analysis; estimation of plane weight. Completion of these four phases results in the specification of the geometry and dimensions of the wing in an optimum... 

Future micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) will have missions occur within and around buildings. This paper describes a vision-based navigation of a very light fixed wing aircraft in flight between obstacles. A geometrical method has been proposed to model the optical flow measurement process using the camera perspective model, the flight equations and the scene geometry. The optical flow information are used to detect the obstacles and perform turn maneuvers based on the balance strategy. The flight of an aircraft in a corridor which encounters a 3-way junction was simulated. The effect of the ways width ratio and the cameras' field of view angles on the aircraft navigation behavior at the... 

To increase the flight endurance of a Micro air vehicle (MAVs), which operates at low Reynolds number flow, one way is to harvest energy during its flight. By inspiring from the nature when all the birds use their feathers to control and distribute their power along the flying time, a solution might be design of a piezoelectric plate as feathers, which scavenges energy directly from the fluid flow. Cantilevered beam with piezo-ceramic layer undergoing vortex-induced vibrations can convert the mechanical energy available from the ambient environment to a usable electrical power. Since a flow-driven piezoelectric composite beam takes a form of natural three-way coupling of the turbulent fluid... 

Motion planning and trajectory control are two basic challenges of unmanned vehicles. In motion planning problem, feasible trajectories are developed while nonlinear dynamic model and performance constraints of the vehicle under utility are considered. In this study, motion planning is performed via an enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm. The resulting offline generated trajectories are tracked using a nonlinear trajectory control system methodology. The Lyapunov-based constrained backstepping approach and command filters are utilized in designing the trajectory control system. Command filters smoothen the input signals and provide their derivatives. Evaluation of the proposed... 

Integrated guidance and control of an elastic flight vehicle based on constrained robust model predictive control is proposed. The design is based on a partial state feedback control law that minimizes a cost function within the framework of linear matrix inequalities. It is shown that the solution of the defined optimization problem stabilizes the nonlinear plant. Nonlinear kinematics and dynamics are taken into account, and internal stability of the closed-loop nonlinear system is guaranteed. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed integrated guidance and control against non-maneuvering and weaving targets are evaluated using computer simulations  

In this paper, the design of a formation flight controller is investigated. Each vehicle in the formation is controlled by designing two separate control loops. The formation flight controller placed in the outer loop employs behavior-based control as a distributed control strategy to steer the vehicle by producing acceleration commands and the control system placed in the inner loop is to convert these commands to the actuator commands. Leader following architecture is applied to define the structure for the formation flight. To study the pragmatic issues of the proposed formation flight controller, it is implemented into multiple micro air vehicles which are modeled by a... 

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to design an adaptive nonlinear controller for a nonlinear system of integrated guidance and control. Design/methodology/approach: A nonlinear integrated guidance and control approach is applied to a homing, tail-controlled air vehicle. Adaptive backstepping controller technique is used to deal with the problem, and the Lyapanov theory is used in the stability analysis of the nonlinear system. A nonlinear model of normal force coefficient is obtained from an existing nonlinear model of lift coefficient which was validated by open loop response. The simulation was performed in the pitch plane to prove the benefits of the proposed scheme; however, it can...