Natural Dynamics Exploitation of Dynamic Soaring: Towards Bio-Inspired and Energy Efficient Flying Locomotion

Albatross has an energy efficient flying pattern (dynamic soaring) among seabirds. This interesting point encourages us to exploit its flying natural dynamics so as to control the flying robots on energy efficient and robust gaits. In doing so, we study the albatross dynamic soaring from analytical and biological perspectives and realize that to generate the dynamic soaring instead of trajectory control, the mechanical energy should be regulated. Accordingly, the control objective is set to mechanical energy regulation, and the bank angle and lift coefficient are computed to satisfy this objective. The presented method is simulated on a standard albatross model and generates two different types of dynamic soaring; O-shaped and a-shaped patterns. In addition, by means of simulations, it is investigated that the presented method is robust in face of variations in initial conditions and unexpected disturbances in the environment's model; i.e., they cannot disturb the stability and cyclic behavior of the system. Moreover, the simulation results are compared with pieces of natural evidence from albatross and interesting similarities are observed.