Bio-Inspired Neural Adaptive Control of a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Airflow Sensors

Abstract

Inspired by the exceptional flight ability of birds and insects, a bio-inspired neural adaptive flight control structure of a small unmanned aerial vehicle was presented. Eight pressure sensors were elaborately installed in the leading-edge area of the forward wing. A back propagation neural network was trained to predict the aerodynamic moment based on pressure measurements. The network model was trained, validated, and tested. An adaptive controller was designed based on a radial basis function neural network. The new adaptive laws guaranteed the boundedness of the adaptive parameters. The closed-loop stability was analyzed via Lyapunov theory. The simulation results demonstrated the robustness of the bio-inspired flight control system when subjected to measurement noise, parametric uncertainties, and external disturbance.

State of the Art Review about Bio-Inspired Design and Applications: An Aerospace Perspective

“…Influenced by these structures, a UAV was set up with strain sensors that controlled roll motions, and pressure sensors (chordwise) were able to control pitch motions [84].A bio-inspired pressure sensor's robustness to detect airflow installed strategically on the leading edge of a small UAV wing was indicated by numerical analysis. It showed promising results under the change in external stimulus [85].…”

“…A bio-inspired pressure sensor's robustness to detect airflow installed strategically on the leading edge of a small UAV wing was indicated by numerical analysis. It showed promising results under the change in external stimulus [85].…”

Flexible Skin for Flight Parameter Estimation Based on Pressure and Velocity Data Fusion

“…[6] With the technological development of FADS over the past few decades, it has been increasing used to obtain the flight parameters and attitude control of SUASs. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] However, pressure tubing and pressure sensing ports on the wing surface are required, which can increase the weight and affect the flight performance of the SUAS. Moreover, the output signal lags in time if the tubing distance is long, [7] damaging the real-time performance in determining the flight parameters.…”