Bounded control of an underactuated biomimetic aerial vehicle - Validation with robustness tests

Flapping wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (FMAVs) have recently emerged as a promising challenge lying on the progress of the avionics technologies. The present paper deals with the development of simple control laws for an embedded implementation on a biomimetic MAV, aiming to control its attitude and position. The control laws are bounded, taking into consideration the amplitude bounds of the control angles characterizing the flapping wings movement. In order to validate the control laws, a simplified model having a simple wing kinematic parametrization and considering only the main aerodynamic forces and torques is proposed. The stability of the controller is shown in simulations using a diptera insect model. The robustness of the proposed controller is emphasized through different robustness tests. They concern mainly external disturbances, model and aerodynamic parameters errors, and aim to validate the considered simplifications in the model.