Development of mathematical models of tailed and tail-less flapping wing fliers that can be used for stability analysis and control design.
During my PhD studies at the Active Structures Laboratory of Université Libre de Bruxelles, I have developed mathematical models of tail-less flapping flight, based on quasi-steady aerodynamics and rigid body dynamics. Such models can serve as a guideline when making design choices with respect to the stability of such robots, e.g. influencing the placement of the center of gravity, and can also be employed in a later stage when designing a control system. For more details, check out the slides of my final PhD presentation, or my PhD thesis.
During my postdoc at TU Delft, I extended my focus also on flapping-wing robots stabilized (and controlled) by the means of a tail (and its control surfaces). Together with my colleagues from C&S department, we have developed methodologies for system identification of such vehicles using free flight data, captured both onboard by logging the robot’s sensor data and off board with an optical motion tracking system.
Related publications:
- M. Karásek and A. Preumont, “Simulation of Flight Control of a Hummingbird Like Robot Near Hover,” in Engineering Mechanics 2012, Svratka, Czech Republic, 2012, p. 607–619.
[Bibtex]@inproceedings{Karasek2012a, abstract = {Interest in Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) capable of hovering is gradually increasing because they can be a low-cost solution for security applications or remote inspection. Much research has centred on designs inspired by insects and hummingbirds, where the propellers are replaced by flapping wings. It is assumed that that flapping wings improve, at small scales, both manoeuvrability and energy efficiency. This numerical work based on quasi-steady aerodynamics applies to a hummingbird robot with a pair of flapping wings and a 12 cm wingspan. We construct a control derivatives matrix that estimates the effect of each wing kinematics parameter on the cycle averaged wing forces and forms the key stone of the flight controller. We implement the controller in a simulation model with rigid body dynamics and "continuous" (i.e. not averaged) aerodynamics. The simulation results show that the controller stabilizes the robot attitude and controls the flight in 4 DOF (translation in any direction + yaw rotation) by modifying only 2 wing kinematic parameters per wing-the flapping amplitude and the mean wing position. Other control parameters are possible. Thus, various mechanical design solutions can be studied in the future.}, address = {Svratka, Czech Republic}, author = {Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and Preumont, Andr{\'{e}}}, booktitle = {Engineering Mechanics 2012}, pages = {607--619}, title = {{Simulation of Flight Control of a Hummingbird Like Robot Near Hover}}, url = {http://www.engmech.cz/improc/2012/322{\_}Karasek{\_}M-FT.pdf}, year = {2012} } -
![[DOI]](https://www.matejkarasek.eu/wp/wp-content/plugins/papercite/img/external.png)
F. G. Rijks, M. Karásek, S. F. Armanini, and C. C. de Visser, “Studying the Effect of the Tail on the Dynamics of a Flapping-Wing MAV using Free-Flight Data,” in 2018 AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, Reston, Virginia, 2018.
[Bibtex]@inproceedings{Rijks2018, address = {Reston, Virginia}, author = {Rijks, Frank G. and Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and Armanini, Sophie F. and de Visser, Coen C.}, booktitle = {2018 AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference}, doi = {10.2514/6.2018-0524}, isbn = {978-1-62410-525-8}, month = {jan}, publisher = {American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics}, title = {{Studying the Effect of the Tail on the Dynamics of a Flapping-Wing MAV using Free-Flight Data}}, url = {https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2018-0524}, year = {2018} } - S. F. Armanini, M. Karásek, and C. C. de Visser, “Global LPV model identification of flapping-wing dynamics using flight data,” in 2018 AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference, Reston, Virginia, 2018.
[Bibtex]@inproceedings{Armanini2018, address = {Reston, Virginia}, author = {Armanini, Sophie F. and Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and de Visser, Coen C.}, booktitle = {2018 AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference}, doi = {10.2514/6.2018-2156}, isbn = {978-1-62410-528-9}, month = {jan}, publisher = {American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics}, title = {{Global LPV model identification of flapping-wing dynamics using flight data}}, url = {https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2018-2156}, year = {2018} } - S. F. Armanini, M. Karásek, C. C. de Visser, G. C. H. E. de Croon, and M. Mulder, “Flight Testing and Preliminary Analysis for Global System Identification of Ornithopter Dynamics Using On-board and Off-board Data,” in AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, Reston, Virginia, 2017, p. AIAA 2017–1634.
[Bibtex]@inproceedings{Armanini2017, address = {Reston, Virginia}, author = {Armanini, Sophie F. and Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and de Visser, Coen C. and de Croon, Guido C. H. E. and Mulder, Max}, booktitle = {AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference}, doi = {10.2514/6.2017-1634}, isbn = {978-1-62410-448-0}, month = {jan}, pages = {AIAA 2017--1634}, publisher = {American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics}, title = {{Flight Testing and Preliminary Analysis for Global System Identification of Ornithopter Dynamics Using On-board and Off-board Data}}, year = {2017} } - J. V. Caetano, S. F. Armanini, and M. Karásek, “In-flight data acquisition and flight testing for system identification of flapping-wing MAVs,” in 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2017, p. 646–655.
[Bibtex]@inproceedings{Caetano2017, author = {Caetano, J.V. and Armanini, Sophie F. and Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j}, booktitle = {2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS)}, doi = {10.1109/ICUAS.2017.7991452}, isbn = {978-1-5090-4495-5}, month = {jun}, pages = {646--655}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{In-flight data acquisition and flight testing for system identification of flapping-wing MAVs}}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7991452/}, year = {2017} } - S. F. Armanini, M. Karásek, G. C. H. E. de Croon, and C. C. de Visser, “Onboard/Offboard Sensor Fusion for High-Fidelity Flapping-Wing Robot Flight Data,” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, p. 1–12, 2017.
[Bibtex]@article{Armanini2017, author = {Armanini, Sophie F. and Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and de Croon, Guido C. H. E. and de Visser, Coen C.}, doi = {10.2514/1.G002527}, issn = {0731-5090}, journal = {Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics}, month = {apr}, pages = {1--12}, publisher = {American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics}, title = {{Onboard/Offboard Sensor Fusion for High-Fidelity Flapping-Wing Robot Flight Data}}, url = {https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.G002527}, year = {2017} } - M. Karásek, A. J. Koopmans, S. F. Armanini, B. D. W. Remes, and G. C. H. E. de Croon, “Free flight force estimation of a 23.5 g flapping wing MAV using an on-board IMU,” in The 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2016), Daejeon, Korea, 9-14 October 2016, 2016.
[Bibtex]@inproceedings{Karasek2016, abstract = {Despite an intensive research on flapping flight and flapping wing MAVs in recent years, there are still no accurate models of flapping flight dynamics. This is partly due to lack of free flight data, in particular during manoeuvres. In this work, we present, for the first time, a comparison of free flight forces estimated using solely an on-board IMU with wind tunnel measurements. The IMU based estimation brings higher sampling rates and even lower variation among individual wingbeats, compared to what has been achieved with an external motion tracking system in the past. A good match was found in comparison to wind tunnel measurements; the slight differences observed are attributed to clamping effects. Further insight was gained from the on-board rpm sensor, which showed motor speed variation of +/- 15{\%} due to load variation over a wingbeat cycle. The IMU based force estimation represents an attractive solution for future studies of flapping wing MAVs as, unlike wind tunnel measurements, it allows force estimation at high temporal resolutions also during manoeuvres.}, author = {Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and Koopmans, J Andries and Armanini, Sophie F. and Remes, Bart D. W. and de Croon, Guido C. H. E.}, booktitle = {The 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2016), Daejeon, Korea, 9-14 October 2016}, keywords = {DelFly,MAVLab}, mendeley-tags = {DelFly,MAVLab}, title = {{Free flight force estimation of a 23.5 g flapping wing MAV using an on-board IMU}}, year = {2016} } - M. Karásek, A. Hua, Y. Nan, M. E. Lalami, and A. Preumont, “Pitch and Roll Control Mechanism for a Hovering Flapping Wing MAV,” International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, vol. 6, iss. 4, p. 253–264, 2014.
[Bibtex]@article{Karasek2014, abstract = {Hovering flapping flight is inherently unstable and needs to be stabilized actively. We present a control mechanism that modulates independently the wing flapping amplitude and offset by displacing joints of a flapping linkage mechanism. We demonstrate its performance by high speed camera recordings of the wing motion as well as by direct measurements of pitch moment and lift force. While flapping at 17 Hz the prototype produces 90 mN of lift and generates pitch moments from -0.7 N.mm to 1.1 N.mm. The mechanism shows low level of cross-coupling in combined pitch and roll commands.}, author = {Kar{\'{a}}sek, Mat{\v{e}}j and Hua, Alexandre and Nan, Yanghai and Lalami, Mohamed Esseghir and Preumont, Andr{\'{e}}}, doi = {10.1260/1756-8293.6.4.253}, issn = {1756-8293}, journal = {International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles}, language = {en}, month = {feb}, number = {4}, pages = {253--264}, publisher = {Multi Science Publishing}, title = {{Pitch and Roll Control Mechanism for a Hovering Flapping Wing MAV}}, url = {http://multi-science.atypon.com/doi/abs/10.1260/1756-8293.6.4.253?journalCode=ijmav http://multi-science.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article{\&}id=doi:10.1260/1756-8293.6.4.253}, volume = {6}, year = {2014} }
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