Hovering flight control of a micromechanical flying insect

This paper describes recent results on the design and simulation of a flight control strategy for the micromechanical flying insect (MFI), a 10-25 mm (wingtip-to-wingtip) device capable of sustained autonomous flight. Biologically inspired by the real insect's flight maneuver, the wing kinematics are paremetrized by a small set of parameters which are sufficient to generate desired average torques to regulate its attitude. Position control was achieved through attitude control based on the linearized dynamics under small angle assumption near hovering. During its continuous flight, the controller schedules the desired wing kinematic parameters according to the inverse map based on the feedback error at the end of each wingbeat. The proposed controller was simulated with the Virtual Insect Flight Simulator, and the results show convergence of both position and orientation.