Design and Perching Experiments of Bird-like Remote Controlled Planes

Abstract

This paper describes the design of bio-mimetic remote controlled airplanes and experiments in perching them. The goal of this research is the development of a biomimetic robotic bird that can alight and rest on a perch. Design starts with the overall architecture including airfoil selection and mass determination given performance requirements. Particular attention is given to the stability analysis since with a bird-like planform with the tail so close to the body and without a vertical tail surface many designs are unstable. The stability matrices are also the basis of the PID controller design. Several foamie planes were built to test different designs and control strategies. Most of the perching experiments used the Dreamflight® Alula glider because it was one of the most bird-like planforms that is available commercially. A catapult launcher and a perch were set up in the AFRL Aviari indoor flight facility which uses motion capture cameras to determine to vehicle state. This allows control algorithms to be developed off-board the plane saving on weight of sensors and on-board computers. Various control strategies were tested from mostly open loop flights, relatively simple PID controllers, to fuzzy logic and dynamic inversion. This paper is limited to the development and testing of the PID controllers.