Attitude control for a micromechanical flying insect via sensor output feedback

In this paper, we study attitude stabilization strategies via output sensor feedback for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), inch-size robots capable of autonomous flight. In order to compensate for the size and power limitations of MAVs, we introduce the ocelli and halteres, the body orientation and rotation sensing mechanisms used by flying insects. The analysis and simulations of these sensors show the feasibility of using such biologically inspired approaches to build biomimetic gyroscopes and angular position detectors. Finally, attitude stabilization techniques based on these sensors are proposed and successfully tested on an aerodynamic model for a micromechanical flying insect (NIFI). To the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt in using output feedback from biomimetic devices with ocelli and halteres to achieve attitude stabilization in MAVs.