Ronald S. Fearing (Principal Investigator) Dept. of EECS Univ. of California, Berkeley 94720
This project concerns flight control for miniature flapping wing robotic fliers. The focus of the research will be on the use of biomimetic (inpired by nature) sensors to stabilize the flight of an approximately one tenth gram two wing robot. Two winged flapping fliers such as true flies provide unmatched capability for aerial maneuverability and robustness when flying in cluttered environments. At this small scale, conventional sensors require too much electrical and computational power to use. This research project will study the use of rapidly-prototyped, low-power biomimetic sensors modelled after insect ocelli (for visual horizon sensing), halteres (for angular rate), and eyes (for optical flow) for flight control.
Intellectual Merit:
The proposed research advances understanding in biomimetic sensors and flight control strategies for flapping wing fliers. For insect-sized flying robots, flapping flight provides very high maneuverability while requiring a very tight coupling between sensors and wing actuation. This project will also lead to better understanding of extremely low power, sensor-rich control techniques for mobile micro-robots.
Broader Impacts:
This project will provide interdisciplinary education for undergraduate and graduate students in biomimetic sensing and control, as well as micro-robotics. For the broader robotics community, rapidly prototyped microsensors will be useful on a wide variety of mobile platforms. For society, a potential broader impact will be large numbers of low-cost, light-weight flying robots which could robustly enter unknown and hazardous environments, potentially keeping rescue workers out of harm's way.
