Modeling and Approximation of Nonlinear Dynamics of Flapping Flight

dc.contributor.authorDadashi, Shirinen
dc.contributor.committeechairKurdila, Andrew J.en
dc.contributor.committeechairBayandor, Javiden
dc.contributor.committeememberMueller, Rolfen
dc.contributor.committeememberLeonessa, Alexanderen
dc.contributor.committeememberWoolsey, Craig A.en
dc.contributor.departmentMechanical Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-20T08:01:04Zen
dc.date.available2017-06-20T08:01:04Zen
dc.date.issued2017-06-19en
dc.description.abstractThe first and most imperative step when designing a biologically inspired robot is to identify the underlying mechanics of the system or animal of interest. It is most common, perhaps, that this process generates a set of coupled nonlinear ordinary or partial differential equations. For this class of systems, the models derived from morphology of the skeleton are usually very high dimensional, nonlinear, and complex. This is particularly true if joint and link flexibility are included in the model. In addition to complexities that arise from morphology of the animal, some of the external forces that influence the dynamics of animal motion are very hard to model. A very well-established example of these forces is the unsteady aerodynamic forces applied to the wings and the body of insects, birds, and bats. These forces result from the interaction of the flapping motion of the wing and the surround- ing air. These forces generate lift and drag during flapping flight regime. As a result, they play a significant role in the description of the physics that underlies such systems. In this research we focus on dynamic and kinematic models that govern the motion of ground based robots that emulate flapping flight. The restriction to ground based biologically inspired robotic systems is predicated on two observations. First, it has become increasingly popular to design and fabricate bio-inspired robots for wind tunnel studies. Second, by restricting the robotic systems to be anchored in an inertial frame, the robotic equations of motion are well understood, and we can focus attention on flapping wing aerodynamics for such nonlinear systems. We study nonlinear modeling, identification, and control problems that feature the above complexities. This document summarizes research progress and plans that focuses on two key aspects of modeling, identification, and control of nonlinear dynamics associated with flapping flight.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralIn this work we focus on modeling flapping flight mechanics by focusing our attention in two aspects of modeling. We first model the behavior of aerodynamic forces in charge of keeping the flying animal airborn. We present a mathematical model for history dependent profile of these forces. Also, we propose a novel adaptive controller to compensate these unknown forces in the dynamic model of the system. We also propose an algorithm to derive dynamic equations of the animal motion by using video data. We expect the model derived by this novel method to emulate the animal motion closely.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:9899en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/78224en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectLearningen
dc.subjectDiscrete Mechanicsen
dc.subjectVariational Integratorsen
dc.subjectEmpirical Potential Functionen
dc.subjectAdaptive Controlen
dc.subjectFunctional Differential Equationsen
dc.subjectHistory Dependent Aerodynamicsen
dc.titleModeling and Approximation of Nonlinear Dynamics of Flapping Flighten
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineMechanical Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en

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