Pitch and Heave Control of Robotic Samara Micro Air Vehicles

Abstract

Micro/nano unmanned aerial systems are an emerging class of vehicles uniquely suited to performing covert missions. A linear model for the heave dynamics of a robotic samara (winged seed) in hovering flight was identified from data collected external to the vehicle by a visual tracking system. Insight gleaned from the implementation of feedback control includes a characteristically overdamped system in climb, which differs from the underdamped descent characteristic observed. Identification and error estimation efforts used a frequency response-based system identification. The two robotic samara vehicles of differing scale compared in this study represent the first demonstration of controlled flight of a vehicle of this kind.