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Micro-Aerial Vehicles
Andrei Smirnov, PhD, PE
Advantages
- Inexpensive
- Can operate in large swarms
- Diverse application areas: military, law-enforcement, intelligence, commercial
- Untapped potential: a bee can fly up to 5 miles away from the hive
Challenges
- Implementation of complex wing flapping mechanism
- Subjected to wind forces
- Power consumption
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Common fly uses complex flaps
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Air Resistance
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Energy taken by the wake
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Dragonfly uses simple flaps
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Many sea creatures use long fins making wavy motion
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Solution: Chain-Connected Micro-Aerial Vehicles
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Advantages
Better performance
Better flight efficiency due to reduced drag and synchronized flapping
- Flying faster
- Flying longer distances
- Higher resistance to wind
Simple wing flapping mechanism
- Two degrees of freedom for wing motion for short chains
- For long chains one degree of freedom will be enough
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Further Enhancements
Flexible joints for maneuverability of long chains
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Applications
Commercial
- Express drug delivery
Intelligence & Law enforcement
- Surveillance
- Accurate geolocation
Military
- Surveillance
- EW resistant targeting
- Anti-drone warfare
What's Next?
- AI-based control system for autonomous flight
- Unsupervised training in simulated environments
- AI-based control system for autonomous flight
- Unsupervised training in simulated environments
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