Wind Sensor and Robotic Model Wasp Development

Flying insects sense the speed and direction of the wind to provide directional information used in chemical plume tracking. To model this plume tracking using a mobile robot, an appropriate wind sensor is required. This paper initially describes the design of a wind sensor for this purpose. The sensor utilises three wind speed measurement devices, thermal anemometers, to determine wind speed and direction. These flow properties are obtained by examining and comparing the signals from the three sensors positioned around an obstacle. A number of different obstacles were produced and tested before the final enclosed design was chosen. The sensor prototype was then integrated with a small mobile robot. This robot was used in two series of tests. The first series examined a simple wind seeking process. The second series examined the production of cross-wind casting behaviour by the robot as observed in flying insects.