Enhanced Non-Steady Gliding Performance of the MultiMo-Bat through Optimal Airfoil Configuration and Control Strategy
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Date
2018Type
- Conference Paper
ETH Bibliography
no
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Abstract
Many robots make use of gravitational potential energy, generated by another mode, to enhance mobility through gliding locomotion. However, unstructured environments can create situations in which the initial conditions for steady-state gliding cannot be achieved; for example, jumping out of a hole, where the obstacle is very close to the robot. This paper suggests an optimization methodology for finding airfoil configurations and control strategies to maximize the effective non-steady-state gliding ratio for the most challenging initial condition, that of zero velocity. Parameters for the optimization are a location of a robot's center-of-mass in relation to its center-of-pressure and, through the addition of a tail, an active pitch control strategy. The optimal center-of-mass location produces the best passive gliding performance (morphological intelligence), and the optimal control strategy improves the gliding distance. Due to the aerodynamic complexities of modeling the collapsible airfoils, we find the optimal location of the center-of-mass from gliding experiments performed on the robot at different center-of-mass locations and initial pitch angles. An optimal location of the center-of-mass was found to be 40% of the wing chord for our robotic platform; measured from the wing's leading edge. The optimal location has a wide range of initial pitch angles which result in stable, yet non-steady-state, gliding behaviors. The morphological intelligence built into our robotic platform creates two observable dynamic behaviors, that of horizontal velocity gain and sink rate minimization. We then estimate the drag coefficients from the experiments, and conduct dynamic simulations to optimize the pitch control strategy. The design methodology presented here can enhance the non-steady-state gliding performance of a broad range of gliding robots, and the control strategy can further enhance performance on those which utilize an active tail. Show more
Publication status
publishedExternal links
Book title
2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)Pages / Article No.
Publisher
IEEEEvent
Organisational unit
09726 - Sitti, Metin (ehemalig) / Sitti, Metin (former)
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ETH Bibliography
no
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