Cross-layer learning in an evolvable oscillator for in-flight controller adaptation in a flapping-wing micro air vehicle

Electronic components are conventionally viewed as black boxes whose only responsibility is to implement interfaces requested and required by designers operating at a higher level of abstraction. This is especially true in the design of controllers where control laws are designed at at high level of abstraction and electronics are used to merely instantiate components of the law's block diagram. In this paper, we consider the use of block components that adapt their internal structures to optimize whole-system behavior using information scoped in multiple layers of abstraction of the whole design. The goal is to provide extended adaptability of the host system while still allowing high-level designers to treat their control design process conventionally.