Towards energy efficiency in micro hovering air vehicles

Abstract

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have gained a significant amount of research lately, with a number of universities and industry sponsors paving the way with micro flying robots to perform Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Missions. However, much of the work done in VTOL/Hover-Capable MAVs till date has not shown performance improvement in flight endurance and payload capacities. In this paper we introduce and detail the Energy Dynamics of a novel Quad-Wing MAV (QV) design and illustrate the improvement in-flight energy consumption, directed towards higher payload capacities and longer flight times. Additionally we show that independent wing control of the QV generates all 6 Degrees of Freedom (DoF) flight maneuvers. By the use of passive elastic elements, we can produce resonant flapping, generating lift and further improvements in energy savings.