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Autonomous flight control with different strategies applied during the complete flight cycle for flapping-wing flying robots

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Abstract

Flapping-wing flying robots (FWFRs), especially large-scale robots, have unique advantages in flight efficiency, load capacity, and bionic hiding. Therefore, they have significant potential in environmental detection, disaster rescue, and anti-terrorism explosion monitoring. However, at present, most FWFRs are operated manually. Some have a certain autonomous ability limited to the cruise stage but not the complete flight cycle. These factors make an FWFR unable to give full play to the advantages of flapping-wing flight to perform autonomous flight tasks. This paper proposed an autonomous flight control method for FWFRs covering the complete process, including the takeoff, cruise, and landing stages. First, the flight characteristics of the mechanical structure of the robot are analyzed. Then, dedicated control strategies are designed following the different control requirements of the defined stages. Furthermore, a hybrid control law is presented by combining different control strategies and objectives. Finally, the proposed method and system are validated through outdoor flight experiments of the HIT-Hawk with a wingspan of 2.3 m, in which the control algorithm is integrated with an onboard embedded controller. The experimental results show that this robot can fly autonomously during the complete flight cycle. The mean value and root mean square (RMS) of the control error are less than 0.8409 and 3.054 m, respectively, when it flies around a circle in an annular area with a radius of 25 m and a width of 10 m.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518005, China

    SiPing Zhong, Song Wang, WenFu Xu, JunTao Liu & ErZhen Pan

Authors
  1. SiPing Zhong
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  2. Song Wang
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  3. WenFu Xu
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  4. JunTao Liu
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  5. ErZhen Pan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to ErZhen Pan.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62233001), the Program of Shenzhen Peacock Innovation Team (Grant No. KQTD20210811090146075), and Shenzhen Excellent Scientific and Technological Innovation Talent Training Project (Grant No. RCJC20200714114436040)

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Zhong, S., Wang, S., Xu, W. et al. Autonomous flight control with different strategies applied during the complete flight cycle for flapping-wing flying robots. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 66, 3343–3354 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-022-2452-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-022-2452-6

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