Biologically Inspired Flight Techniques for Small and Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

This paper discusses energy extraction from atmospheric turbulence by smalland microuninhabited aerial vehicles. A controller which superimposes a gust-dependent control input on a state-feedback derived control input is proposed, and a genetic algorithm is used to obtain control gains as well as the optimal nominal trim state is described. Control laws are designed for both vertical sinusoidal gust fields as well as vertical and longitudinal Dryden gust fields. The optimal trim state and controller gains are shown to vary with gust intensity, and simulation results show significant energy savings for the gust soaring controller over a feedback-only controller.