Insect-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots
Inspired by the biology of bees, the RoboBee project at Harvard aims to create an artificial colony of insect-scale flapping-winged robots. The project is divided into three broad areas: the brain, the colony and the body.
The brain aspect involves the development of novel sensors and electronics that mimic how bees sense the world; the colony aims to develop algorithms to enable swarms of individual robots to work effectively as a collective; lastly the body develops the manufacturing techniques and integrates power to enable the creation of autonomous insect-scale flapping wing robots.
My role in this project is in the body where I designed aerodynamic dampers for passive stability about the roll and pitch axes of the robot and an active yaw torque generating mechanism for heading control.
The brain aspect involves the development of novel sensors and electronics that mimic how bees sense the world; the colony aims to develop algorithms to enable swarms of individual robots to work effectively as a collective; lastly the body develops the manufacturing techniques and integrates power to enable the creation of autonomous insect-scale flapping wing robots.
My role in this project is in the body where I designed aerodynamic dampers for passive stability about the roll and pitch axes of the robot and an active yaw torque generating mechanism for heading control.
Active heading control mechanism inspired by the fruit fly's wing hinge
Control over the heading orientation of the flapping-wing robot is crucial for the integration of sensors such as gyroscopes, proximity sensors and cameras for localization purposes. I designed a control transmission inspired by the fruit fly wing hinge that enabled our flapping-wing robots to hover and transition to tracking a desired heading trajectory. This work brings our insect-scale flapping-wing robots closer to operating in the real world where the environment is unstructured and cluttered.
Passive upright stability using aerodynamic dampers
To stabilize an under-actuated insect-scale flapping-wing robot, more actuators can be added to enable the production of roll and pitch torque for hover.
An alternative to adding more actuators is the design the system to be passively stable.
A passively stable system would eliminate the sensor actuator loop which would result in power savings and a simpler more robust mechanical design. To create a passively stable under-actuated insect-scale flapping-wing robot, I designed a pair of aerodynamic dampers that was able to passively stabilize the robot about its roll and pitch axes.
An alternative to adding more actuators is the design the system to be passively stable.
A passively stable system would eliminate the sensor actuator loop which would result in power savings and a simpler more robust mechanical design. To create a passively stable under-actuated insect-scale flapping-wing robot, I designed a pair of aerodynamic dampers that was able to passively stabilize the robot about its roll and pitch axes.