Transition flight control of bioinspired flapping-wing micro air vehicle using gain-scheduling LQR controller

Abstract

Flapping insects have inspired many engineers to work on their unsteady aerodynamics and inherently unstable flight dynamics due to their stable and agile flight performance with only one pair of wing. Although many engineers have been developing bioinspired flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV) to mimic their excellent flight performance, many of them have limited performance, because unsteady aerodynamics, flight dynamics and control algorithms of bioinspired FWMAV are not thoroughly understood. In this study, transition flight control of bioinspired FWMAV is achieved using reference tracking augmented gain-scheduling LQR controller by setting up a simulation environment that couples quasi-steady aerodynamic forces and moment, which is based on experimentally obtained aerodynamic coefficient, to 3-DOF longitudinal equations of motion of bioinspired FWMAV modeled in this study. Parametric study with respect to various body pitch attitudes (from $50^\circ$ to $90^\circ$ with $10^\circ$ increments) and forward flight speeds (from 0.0 m/s to 1.0 m/s with 0.25 m/s increments) is performed to investigate their role on the longitudinal flight dynamic stability and aerodynamic power consumption. Then, based on the parametric study results, power efficient design operating points are chosen to design gain-scheduling LQR controller that tracks desired forward flight speed and body pitch attitude while maintaining its controller performance.