AOE Seminar: Flight Dynamics and Control in Dipteran Insects with Applications to Aerial Microrobotics| Speaker | Dr. J. Sean Humbert |
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| Institution | University of Maryland |
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| Faculty Host | Dr. Craig Woolsey |
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| Date & Time | 10.26.2009 04:00pm |
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| Location | 129 McBryde Hall |
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Successful realization of insect-based aerial microrobotic vehicles faces significant challenges due to fast dynamics, small payload capacities, and the absence of a quantitative reduced-order description of the unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms that provide locomotive capability. The stringent size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints render traditional sensing, processing, and feedback paradigms unusable. Insect nervous systems, which function under similar constraints, offer a promising alternative. In these small organisms, spatially distributed arrays of simple sensors that collect localized measurements are pooled and processed in parallel by sensory interneurons that converge onto relatively small numbers of motor neurons responsible for controlling locomotion. In addition to this unique approach for rapid extraction of information for stability augmentation and navigation, behavioral analysis and measurements from high speed videography indicate that insects leverage passive aerodynamic mechanisms attendant to flapping motions to further minimize sensing and feedback requirements. This talk will address (a) a control- and information-theoretic framework in which to analyze the advantages of this unique sensorimotor architecture; (b) reduced order models of flapping flight dynamics and analysis of high speed videography of gust response to understand the passive aerodynamic stability properties; and (c) MEMS and analog VLSI implementations of insect-inspired sensors and the development of a 10g flapping micro air vehicle. |
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