Modeling and control of micro air vehicles with biologically-inspired morphing

Morphing is attractive as a control effector that can dramatically alter the flight characteristics of an aircraft. In particular, morphing can use biologically-inspired approaches that note the similarity in size and airspeed between a micro air vehicle and birds. This paper introduces several types of morphing that have been implemented and flown on vehicle. A generalized modeling framework and control synthesis are presented to enable autonomous operation of such vehicles. An example of a gull-wing aircraft is shown to demonstrate the methodology