Bio-Inspired Sensing and Control for Improved Micro Air Vehicle Agility

Impact Technologies, LLC in collaboration with Georgia Tech, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and our commercialization partner Boeing, is proposing to develop a bio-inspired autonomous Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) platform capable of agile flight operations in cluttered urban environments. Building upon the experience of this team with UAV controls and autonomous urban operations, we will develop and demonstrate the following innovative technologies to improve MAV flight agility: (1) a bio-inspired agile MAV platform with morphing wing actuation; (2) an innovative micro attitude estimation device using a set of inexpensive accelerometers and angular rate sensors for highly accurate attitude estimation; and (3) a hierarchical intelligent control architecture featuring autonomous mode transitioning and neural network-based adaptive controls. We will take advantage of the MAV test platforms the team has built and tested in the past few years as initial test bed to integrate and evaluate the proposed sensor, control architecture and algorithms. Phase I will provide a proof-of-feasibility demonstration in an integrated software-hardware simulation environment. Hardware integration and flight tests are planned with our commercialization partner Boeing for Phase II. In addition, Impact will work closely with industry partners to develop a technology transfer and commercialization plan for developed MAV platforms.