Open loop pitch control of a flapping wing micro-air vehicle using a tail and control mass

The paper presents two open loop methods to control the unstable, longitudinal oscillation of a flapping wing micro-air vehicle (FWMAV). The dynamic model of the FWMAV is derived by modeling the FWMAV as three rigid bodies (two wings and a central body) and through the use of D´Alembert´s principle for multiple rigid bodies. The unstable pitching of the central body is controlled through the use of a tail and a control mass. The control methods presented are open-loop and do not include feedback from sensors. The tail and control mass are both effective at altering the longitudinal oscillations of the FWMAV model. Depending on the configuration, the FWMAV can recover the initial longitudinal orientation in as little as three wingbeats.