Control of Flying Robotic Insects: A Perspective and Unifying Approach

Abstract

We discuss the problem of designing and implementing controllers for insect-scale flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs), from a unifying perspective and employing two different experimental platforms; namely, a Harvard RoboBee-like two-winged robot and the four-winged USC Bee + . Through experiments, we demonstrate that a method that employs quaternion coordinates for attitude control, developed to control quadrotors, can be applied to drive both robotic insects considered in this work. The proposed notion that a generic strategy can be used to control several types of artificial insects with some common characteristics was preliminarily tested and validated using a set of experiments, which include position-and attitude-controlled flights. We believe that the presented results are interesting and valuable from both the research and educational perspectives.

Developments and Challenges of Miniature Piezoelectric Robots: A Review

“…However, the CNC machining method is difficult to process some special microstructures, which cannot meet the further miniaturization and special design requirements of MPRs. Then, some new fabrication methods are applied to MPRs with miniature and special structure designs, mainly including additive manufacturing (AM) method [ 219 , 220 , 221 ] and smart composite microstructure (SCM) method, [ 222 , 223 , 224 ] as shown in Figure 11 a . The AM method, also referred to as 3D printing method, has the unique advantages for the cost‐effective fabrication of complicated 3D geometries with multiple materials at multiple scales.…”

“…can more conveniently make the special microstructures for MPRs. [ 222 , 223 , 224 , 228 , 229 , 230 , 231 ] On the other hand, the new piezoelectric materials, especially the soft piezoelectric materials, have greatly expanded the performances of MPRs, mainly including the PVDF film that is conducive to the flexible body design and adaptability of MPRs, [ 269 , 272 ] and the MFC laminate that is suitable for the underwater MPRs due to its properties of large output force, waterproof, etc.. [ 273 , 276 ] Performing the attempts of new manufacturing methods and piezoelectric materials in MPRs is valuable development trend, which is helpful for realizing the large‐scale and batch production of the customized microstructure and further improving the characteristics of MPRs.…”

An 88-milligram insect-scale autonomous crawling robot driven by a catalytic artificial muscle

“…With the exception of the artificial muscles, all the mechanisms and structural components of the RoBeetle prototypes were designed and are fabricated using the SCM method, especially some of the techniques described in (51). In specific, the fuel tank, lid, legs, sliding shutter and horns of the prototype shown Fig.…”