Neural-memory based control of micro air vehicles (MAVs) with flapping wings

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of wing motion control of flapping wing Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). Inspired by hummingbird's wing structure as well as the construction of its skeletal and muscular components, a dynamic model for flapping wing is developed. As the model is highly nonlinear and coupled with unmeasurable disturbances and uncertainties, traditional strategies are not applicable for flapping wing motion control. A new approach called neural-memory based control is proposed in this work. It is shown that this method is able to learn from past control experience and current/past system behavior to improve its performance during system operation. Furthermore, much less information about the system dynamics is needed in construction such a control scheme as compared with traditional NN based methods. Both theoretical analysis and computer simulation verify its effectiveness. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.