Modeling and Simulation of a Flapping-Wing Robot with Active Tails for Balancing Control during Wheeled Running

摘要

Self-takeoff of flapping-wing robots (FWRs) is a very important capability for their real applications in large area surveillance, search and rescue, etc. We proposed a wheeled running assisted takeoff method for FWRs inspired by some large birds which take off assisted by running to achieve an initial velocity. In this work, we focus on the modeling and simulation of a FWR. The lift force and thrust force during up and down flaps are studied considering the deformation of the wings. The balancing control of the robot by using the active tails during wheeled running is also studied. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the robot models. The robot with 1/4 ellipse shaped wings and 1 m wing span could provide average lift force of 7.13 N and average thrust of 1.49 N at attack angle of 20° and flapping frequency of 2 Hz when forward speed is 8m/s. The fan-shaped rigid tails can be used to control the posture of the robot effectively. The results of this paper could give guidelines for this kind of robots design.