Biomimetic Approach for Accurate, Real-Time Aerodynamic Coefficients

Aerodynamic and structural reliability and efficiency depends critically on the ability to accurately assess the aerodynamic loads and moments for each lifting surface. A thin-film, flight-worthy sensor capable of providing spatio-temporally accurate estimation of aerodynamic coefficients enables revolutionary energy-efficient, physics-based, force-feedback flight control of a wide range of vehicles from subsonic to supersonic flows. Recent biophysics research has uncovered sensory techniques to recover information from the noisy environment. Tao Systems proposes to develop a unique sensor that robustly applies these biomimetic sensory techniques to the aerodynamic problem to obtain accurate estimates of aerodynamic coefficients with minimal calibration requirements.