Control performance simulation in the design of a flapping wing micro-aerial vehicle

Flapping wing micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) hold great potential for matching the agility of flies, their source of inspiration. At small scales, however, it becomes difficult to balance design mechanical complexity and the weight/lift ratio. Considering control in the initial stages of vehicle design can help define system feasibility and the consequences of making design simplifications. Here, four design alternatives based on a piezoelectric driven passive pitch reversal wing are modeled and compared based on their performance under an ideal linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control scheme. State error over straight line, circular, and cube trajectories are used as a means of comparison. Wing lift and reasonable control input bounds are defined for each design variation. While not nearly as maneuverable as flies, these designs show promise as feasible controllable vehicles.