This thesis presents a method for designing a flapping wing stroke for a flapping
wing vehicle. A flapping wing vehicle is a vehicle such as a bird or an insect that
uses its wings for propulsion instead of a conventional propeller or a jet engine. The
intent of this research is to design a wing stroke that the wings can follow which will
maintain the vehicle at a desired longitudinal flight path angle and velocity. The
cost function is primarily a function of the flight path angle error, velocity error
and control rate. The objective maneuver is to achieve a flight condition similar to
the trim of a conventional fixed wing aircraft. Gliding configurations of the vehicle
are analyzed to better understand flight in minimal energy configurations as well as
the modes of the vehicle. A control law is also designed using Lyapunov’s direct
method that achieves stable tracking of the wing stroke. Results are presented that
demonstrate the ability of the method to design wing strokes that can maintain the
vehicle at various flight path angles and velocities. The results of this research show
that an optimal control problem can be posed such that the solution of the problem
results in a wing stroke that a flapping wing vehicle can use to achieve a desired
maneuver. The vehicle velocity is shown to be stable in controlled gliding flight and
flapping flight.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2854 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Jackson, Justin Patrick |
| Contributors | Strganac, Thomas |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
Page generated in 0.1334 seconds