Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) are defined as a class of vehicles with their larger dimension not exceeding 15 cm and weighing 100 gm. The three main approaches for providing lift for such vehicles are through fixed, rotating and flapping wings. The flapping wing MAVs are more efficient in the low Reynolds-number regime than conventional wings and rotors. Natural flapping flyers, such as birds and insects, serve as a natural source of inspiration for the development of MAV. Flapping wing design is one of the major challenges to develop an MAV because it is not only responsible for the lift, but also propulsion and maneuvers. Two important issues are addressed in this thesis: (1) an equivalent beam-type modeling of actual insect wing is proposed based on the experimental data and (2) development of the numerical framework for design and analysis of insect scale smart flapping wing. The experimental data is used for structural modeling of the blowfly Calliphora wing as a stepped cantilever beam with nine spanwise sections of varying mass per unit lengths, flexural rigidity (EI) and torsional rigidity (GJ) values. Natural frequencies, both in bending and torsion, are obtained by solving the homogeneous part of the respective governing differential equations using the finite element method. It is found that natural frequency in bending and torsion are 3.17 and 1.57 times higher than flapping frequency of Calliphora wing, respectively. The results provide guidelines for the biomimetic structural design of insect-scale flapping wings. In addition to the structural modeling of the insect wing, development of the biomimetic mechanisms played a very important role to achieve a deeper insight of the flapping flight. Current biomimetic flapping wing mechanisms are either dynamically scaled or rely on pneumatic and motor-driven flapping actuators. Unfortunately, these mechanisms become bulky and flap at very low frequency. Moreover, mechanisms designed with conventional actuators lead to high weight and system-complexity which makes it difficult to mimic the complex wingbeat kinematics of the natural flyers. The usage of the actuator made of smart materials such as ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) and piezoceramics to design flapping wings is a potential alternative. IPMCs are a relatively new type of smart material that belongs to the family of Electroactive Polymers (EAP) which is also known as “artificial muscles”. In this work, structural modeling and aerodynamic analysis of a dragonfly inspired IPMC flapping wing are performed using numerical simulations. An optimization study is performed to obtain improved flapping actuation of the IPMC wing. Later, a comparative study of the performances of three IPMC flapping wings having the same size as the actual wings of three different dragonfly species Aeshna Multicolor, Anax Parthenope Julius and Sympetrum Frequens is conducted. It is found that the IPMC wing generates sufficient lift to support its own weight and carry a small payload. In addition to the IPMC, piezoelectric materials are also considered to design a dragonfly inspired flapping wing because they have several attractive features such as high bandwidth, high output force, compact size and high power density. The wings of birds and insects move through a large angle which may be obtained using piezofan through large deflection. Piezofan which is one of the simple motion amplifying mechanisms couples a piezoelectric unimorph to an attached flexible wing and is competent to produce large deflection especially at resonance. Non-linear dynamic model for the piezoelectrically actuated flapping wing is done using energy method. It is shown that flapping angle variations of the smart flapping wing are similar to the actual dragonfly wing for a specific feasible voltage. Subsequently, a comparative study of the performances of three piezoelectrically actuated flapping wings is performed. Numerical results show that the flapping wing based on geometry of dragonfly Sympetrum Frequens wing is suitable for low speed flight and it represents a potential candidate for use in insect scale micro air vehicles. In this study, single crystal piezoceramic is also considered for the flapping wing design because they are the potential new generation materials and have attracted considerable attention due to superior electromechanical properties. It is found that the use of single crystal piezoceramic can lead to considerable amount of wing weight reduction and increase of aerodynamic forces compared to conventional piezoelectric materials such as PZT-5H. It can also be noted that natural fliers flap their wings in a vertical plane with a change in the pitch of the wings during a flapping cycle. In order to capture this particular feature of the wingbeat kinematics, coupled flapping-twisting non-linear dynamic modeling of piezoelectrically actuated flapping wing is done using energy method. Excitation by the piezoelectric harmonic force generates only the flap bending motion, which in turn, induces the elastic twist motion due to interaction between flexural and torsional vibrations modes. It is found that the value of average lift reaches to its maximum when the smart flapping wing is excited at a frequency closer to the natural frequency in torsion. Moreover, consideration of the elastic twisting of flapping wing leads to an increase in the lift force.

<div>Insects and hummingbirds exhibit extraordinary flight capabilities and can simultaneously master seemingly conflicting goals: stable hovering and aggressive maneuvering, unmatched by small-scale man-made vehicles. Given a sudden looming visual stimulus at hover, a hummingbird initiates a fast backward translation coupled with a 180-degree yaw turn, which is followed by instant posture stabilization in just under 10 wingbeats. Considering the wingbeat frequency of 40Hz, this aggressive maneuver is accomplished in just 0.2 seconds. Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles (FWMAVs) hold great promise for closing this performance gap given its agility. However, the design and control of such systems remain challenging due to various constraints.</div><div><br></div><div>First, the design, optimization and system integration of a high performance at-scale biologically inspired tail-less hummingbird robot is presented. Designing such an FWMAV is a challenging task under the constraints of size, weight, power, and actuation limitations. It is even more challenging to design such a vehicle with independently controlled wings equipped with a total of only two actuators and be able to achieve animal-like flight performance. The detailed systematic solution for the design is presented, including system modeling and analysis of the wing-actuation system, body dynamics, and control and sensing requirements. Optimization is conducted to search for the optimal system parameters, and a hummingbird robot is built and validated experimentally.</div><div><br></div><div>An open-source high fidelity dynamic simulation for FWMAVs is developed to serve as a testbed for the onboard sensing and flight control algorithm, as well as design, and optimization of FWMAVs. For simulation validation, the hummingbird robot was recreated in the simulation. System identification was performed to obtain the dynamics parameters. The force generation, open-loop and closed-loop dynamic response between simulated and experimental flights were compared and validated. The unsteady aerodynamics and the highly nonlinear flight dynamics present challenging control problems for conventional and learning control algorithms such as Reinforcement Learning.</div><div><br></div><div>For robust transient and steady-state flight performance, a robust adaptive controller is developed to achieve stable hovering and fast maneuvering. The model-based nonlinear controller can stabilize the system and adapt to system parameter changes such as wear and tear, thermo effect on the actuator or strong disturbance such as ground effect. The controller is tuned in simulation and experimentally verified by hovering, point-to-point fast traversing, and following by rapid figure-of-eight trajectory. The experimental result demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance of the FWMAV in stationary hovering and fast trajectory tracking tasks, with minimum transient and steady-state error.</div><div><br></div><div>To achieve animal level maneuvering performance, especially the hummingbirds' near-maximal performance during rapid escape maneuvers, we developed a hybrid flight control strategy for aggressive maneuvers. The proposed hybrid control policy combines model-based nonlinear control with model-free reinforcement learning. The model-based nonlinear control stabilizes the system's closed-loop dynamics under disturbance and parameter variation. With the stabilized system, a model-free reinforcement learning policy trained in simulation can be optimized to achieve the desirable fast movement by temporarily "destabilizing" the system during flight. Two test cases were demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the hybrid control method: 1)a rapid escape maneuver observed in real hummingbird, 2) a drift-free fast 360-degree body flip. Direct simulation-to-real transfers are achieved, demonstrating the hummingbird-like fast evasive maneuvers on the at-scale hummingbird robot.</div>

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Développer, à partir de zéro, un drone imitant le vol battu de l'insecte est une tâche ambitieuse et ardue pour un designer en raison du manque de savoir-faire en la matière. Pour en accélérer le développement pendant les phases de design préliminaires, un outil modélisant les phénomènes aéroélastiques du vol de l'insecte est un véritable atout pour le designer et est le sujet de cette thèse. Le cœur de cet outil est un solveur éléments finis 'structure' couplé, en utilisant une approche par tranche, à un modèle aérodynamique quasi-statique du vol de l'insecte prenant en compte la flexibilité de l'aile, à la fois selon l'envergure et la corde, mais aussi ses grands déplacements. L'ensemble est conçu de manière à contenir le coût de calcul tout en étant assez modulaire pour s'adapter à un large panel d'applications. Afin de valider l'intégralité de cet outil, un processus en deux étapes a été entrepris avec d'abord une approche numérique et ensuite une validation expérimentale grâce à un banc de caractérisation dédié. Les résultats du modèle concordent de manière satisfaisante dans les deux cas, capturant l'amortissement dû aux forces aérodynamiques, et ouvrent ainsi la voie à son utilisation pour le design de drones à ailes battantes. Pour démontrer l'intérêt de cette approche lors des phases de design préliminaires, deux applications sur un nano-drone résonant sont réalisées: la définition d'une stratégie d'actionnement efficace et la recherche d'une géométrie d'aile potentiellement intéressante d'un point de vue aérodynamique, en couplant l'outil de modélisation à un algorithme génétique. Les résultats obtenus sont cohérents avec ceux trouvés dans la nature et sont en cours d'implémentation sur le drone. / Developing insect-like flapping-wing drones from scratch is an ambitious and arduous task for designers due to a lack of well-established know-how. To speed up the development of such vehicles through the preliminary design stage, a framework modeling the aeroelastic phenomena encountered in insect flight is an asset and is the subject of this thesis. Its kernel is a FEM based structural solver coupled in a blade-element approach to a quasi-steady aerodynamic model of insect flight accounting for the wing flexibility, both in the spanwise and in the chordwise direction, and for its large displacement. The complete framework is devised so as to maintain the computation load low while being modular enough for a wide range of applications. To validate the overall aeroelastic framework, a two-steps process has been undertaken with in one hand numerical studies and in the other hand experimental ones acquired on a dedicated test bench. The framework computation agrees satisfactorily, capturing the damping due to the aerodynamic force, and thus paves the way for preliminary design applications of a flapping-wing vehicle. To exhibit the capabilities of the framework as a preliminary design tool, two applications on a resonant nano air vehicle are performed: the definition of an efficient actuation strategy and the search of an aerodynamic potentially interesting wing geometry by plugging the framework to a genetic algorithm. The results are coherent with the ones found in nature and are under implementation on the nano air vehicle.

Birds and bats employ a variety of advanced wing motions in the efficient production of thrust. The purpose of this thesis is to quantify the benefit of these advanced wing motions, determine the optimal theoretical wing kinematics for a given flight condition, and to develop a methodology for applying the results in the optimal design of flapping-wing aircraft (ornithopters). To this end, a medium-fidelity, combined aero-structural model has been developed that is capable of simulating the advanced kinematics seen in bird flight, as well as the highly non-linear structural deformations typical of high-aspect ratio wings. Five unique methods of thrust production observed in natural species have been isolated, quantified and thoroughly investigated for their dependence on Reynolds number, airfoil selection, frequency, amplitude and relative phasing. A gradient-based optimization algorithm has been employed to determined the wing kinematics that result in the minimum required power for a generalized aircraft or species in any given flight condition. In addition to the theoretical work, with the help of an extended team, the methodology was applied to the design and construction of the world's first successful human-powered ornithopter. The Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter, is used as an example aircraft to show how additional design constraints can pose limits on the optimal kinematics. The results show significant trends that give insight into the kinematic operation of natural species. The general result is that additional complexity, whether it be larger twisting deformations or advanced wing-folding mechanisms, allows for the possibility of more efficient flight. At its theoretical optimum, the efficiency of flapping-wings exceeds that of current rotors and propellers, although these efficiencies are quite difficult to achieve in practice.

Birds and bats employ a variety of advanced wing motions in the efficient production of thrust. The purpose of this thesis is to quantify the benefit of these advanced wing motions, determine the optimal theoretical wing kinematics for a given flight condition, and to develop a methodology for applying the results in the optimal design of flapping-wing aircraft (ornithopters). To this end, a medium-fidelity, combined aero-structural model has been developed that is capable of simulating the advanced kinematics seen in bird flight, as well as the highly non-linear structural deformations typical of high-aspect ratio wings. Five unique methods of thrust production observed in natural species have been isolated, quantified and thoroughly investigated for their dependence on Reynolds number, airfoil selection, frequency, amplitude and relative phasing. A gradient-based optimization algorithm has been employed to determined the wing kinematics that result in the minimum required power for a generalized aircraft or species in any given flight condition. In addition to the theoretical work, with the help of an extended team, the methodology was applied to the design and construction of the world's first successful human-powered ornithopter. The Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter, is used as an example aircraft to show how additional design constraints can pose limits on the optimal kinematics. The results show significant trends that give insight into the kinematic operation of natural species. The general result is that additional complexity, whether it be larger twisting deformations or advanced wing-folding mechanisms, allows for the possibility of more efficient flight. At its theoretical optimum, the efficiency of flapping-wings exceeds that of current rotors and propellers, although these efficiencies are quite difficult to achieve in practice.

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