Characterization of Flight Initiation
From FZwiki
Problem Statement
The vast majority of flapping-wing Micro Aerial Vehicles initiate flight by way of a simple hand launch (e.g., Delfly Micro, Microbat), or by mimicking a Vertical Take-Off mechanism (e.g., Nano SCOUT, MFI). While these are effective means for becoming airborne, we seek to understand, and perhaps replicate, the mechanics of flight initiation employed by flying insects; after all, these organisms must transition between walking and flying in a plethora of surroundings, under very different initial conditions.
In collaboration with Bioengineering PhD student Gwyneth Card, we investigate the mechanics of flight initiation in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The study comprises 1) an analysis of the propulsion forces produced by the insect's jump during takeoff, and 2) a characterization of the flight forces in response to the unsteady dynamics induced by the jump.
Publications
- Flight dynamics and control of evasive maneuvers: the fruit fly's takeoff [preprint]
F. A. Zabala, G. M. Card, E. I. Fontaine, R. M. Murray and M. H. Dickinson (2009)
To appear. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering Letters (invited article for special issue on Biorobotics).
- Directionality Control and Flight Stability of Takeoff [preprint]
F. A. Zabala (2009)
To appear. 2009 IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA '09). Kobe, Japan, May 2009.
- Dynamics of Escaping Flight Initiations of Drosophila melanogaster [pdf]
F. A. Zabala, G. M. Card, E. I. Fontaine, R. M. Murray, and M. H. Dickinson (2008)
In Proc. 2008 IEEE RAS/EMBS Int. Conf. on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob '08), Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press, 2008, pp. 1-7.
