Thursday September 1 – 8.30-9.30 hrs – Room Franceschini

	David B. Doman United States Air Force Research Laboratory Wright Patterson AFB OH USA

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Towards insect-like maneuverability of flapping-wing
micro air vehicles

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Abstract:
The AFRL Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Dynamics and Control group has been developing an integrated framework by which tailless flapping wing aircraft can be designed for controllability. The goal is to achieve insectlike maneuverability in such aircraft by using only flapping-wing control effectors. Because MAVs have extreme limitations on mass and volume, particular attention has been paid to minimizing the number of control actuators and the complexity of control laws. A method called “split-cycle frequency modulation with wing bias” has been developed and tested in simulation. This technique enables independent control of rolling, pitching, and yawing moments as well as vertical and horizontal forces, using two physical actuators. The method operates by varying the speed of the wings on the fore and aft strokes to yield differences in dynamic pressure that produce controlled variations in cycle-averaged forces and moments. Additionally, a general framework has been developed that allows controllability to be considered at the preliminary vehicle design stage, by linking elements of the control effectiveness matrix to vehicle design parameters.

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David B. Doman biosketch:
David B. Doman is a Senior Aerospace Engineer with the Air Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. He received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1998. He completed the Aerospace Vehicle Test Course at the USAF Test Pilot School in 2005. He is currently the Technical Area Lead for the Micro Air Vehicle Dynamics and Control Group, in the Control Science Center of Excellence at AFRL. He has published over 130 refereed conference papers, journal articles and technical reports and holds three U.S. patents.
He was the co-recipient of the 2003 Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois Award as well as the 2000 Dr. Courtland D. Perkins award for his technical contributions at the Air Vehicles Directorate of AFRL. He is a recipient of the 2009 AIAA Sustained Service Award for contributions as a technical author, journal editor, and for services to technical conferences. He was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society for his work in the area of hypersonic vehicle dynamics and control. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics.