Self-excited actuation enables adaptive and resilient flapping-wing flight

2026-09-16

AI Summary

本文通过开发首个使用异步驱动的扑翼飞行机器人，解决了飞行控制中适应性和响应性的问题，展示了其在复杂环境中的稳定性和性能优势。

Abstract

The muscles that power insect flight fall into one of two categories: 1) synchronous muscles that contract under direct control from the nervous system, and 2) asynchronous muscles which have an intrinsic stretch activation response that spontaneously generates wingbeats without the need for signaling from the brain. It is thought that the emergent nature of asynchronous wingbeats provides both adaptive and responsive capabilities for flight control. To date, most flying robots use synchronous actuation. In this paper we develop the first flight-capable flapping wing robot that uses asynchronous actuation. We demonstrate that asynchronous actuation allows wings to respond to changes in the resonant mechanics of the body without control input, and wings can react instantaneously to collisions with obstacles with no extrinsic sensing needed. Flight tests within cluttered environments demonstrate that asynchronous actuation significantly improves stability and performance when compared to synchronous actuation. In total this work demonstrates that a flapping wing robot actuation strategy that emulates the asynchronous muscles of flying insects can provide fast, reactive actuation responses before a control system would need to intervene. This partitioning of embodied control to both the low-level actuation dynamics and and high-level sensorimotor system provides a compelling blueprint for new flying robots.

Problem

• asynchronous actuation
• flapping wing robot
• flight control

Innovation

• asynchronous actuation
• flapping-wing robot
• adaptive flight control
• resonant mechanics