Arion Pons

Arion Pons, Fehmi Cirak

Modern high-performance combat aircraft exceed conventional flight-envelope limits on maneuverability through the use of thrust vectoring, and so achieve supermaneuverability. With ongoing development of biomimetic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the potential for supermaneuverability through biomimetic mechanisms becomes apparent. So far, this potential has not been well studied: biomimetic UAVs have not yet been shown to be capable of any of the forms of classical supermaneuverability available to thrust-vectored aircraft. Here we show this capability, by demonstrating how biomimetic morphing-wing UAVs can perform sophisticated multiaxis nose-pointing-and-shooting (NPAS) maneuvers at low morphing complexity. Nonlinear flight-dynamic analysis is used to characterize the extent and stability of the multidimensional space of aircraft trim states that arises from biomimetic morphing. Navigating this trim space provides an effective model-based guidance strategy for generating open-loop NPAS maneuvers in simulation. Our results demonstrate the capability of biomimetic aircraft for air combat-relevant supermaneuverability, and provide strategies for the exploration, characterization, and guidance of further forms of classical and non-classical supermaneuverability in such aircraft.

Arion Pons, Tsevi Beatus

Minimising the energy consumption associated with periodic motion is a priority common to a wide range of technologies and organisms - among them, many species of flying insect, for which flapping-wing flight is a life-essential mode of locomotion. In pursuit of this priority, the following problem often manifests: how to introduce elasticity into an actuated, oscillating, system in order to minimise actuator power consumption? Here, we explore this question in a range of general systems, and find some surprising answers. For instance, it is widely assumed that, if the system dynamics are linear, then linear resonant elasticity is the only optimal choice. We show, to the contrary, that there exist nonlinear elasticities with equivalent optimality, and provide an elegant method for constructing these elasticities in general systems. This is a new principle of linear and nonlinear dynamics, fundamentally altering how questions of energetic optimality in a wide range of dynamical systems must be approached. Furthermore, we show how this principle enables new forms of optimal system design, including optimal unidirectional actuation in nonlinear systems; new tools for the design of optimal biomimetic propulsion systems; and new insights into the role of structural elasticity in a range of different organisms.