Proprioceptive Wings for Robust Flight

As Small- and Micro- Air Vehicles (SUAVs/MAVs) transition from demonstrators to field-usable vehicles with ever-increasing capabilities, the necessity for avionics and control tailored to their unique needs becomes more acute.  SUAVs operating at low altitude in cluttered urban environments will encounter a variety of turbulent flow fields.  These aircraft will be subject to asymmetric gusts caused by the channeling and occlusions of flow in urban canyons – flow fields unique to this environment.  As investigated by AFRL with their Biology-Inspired Autonomous Control program, small UAVs have a lot to gain from proprioceptive sensing.  These efforts revealed that embedded torque and strain sensors, control approaches based on innate, reflexive reactions, and actuation schemes which enable continuous deformability greatly improve robustness, maneuverability, and stability.