Control-oriented modeling of coupled electromechanical-aeroelastic dynamics for flapping-wing vehicles

A computationally tractable nonlinear aeroelastic model of a bioinspired flapping-wing micro air vehicle, which includes motor dynamics and is suitable for control evaluation, is developed in this paper. The structural model accounts for geometrically nonlinear deformations using an implicit condensation technique. The aerodynamic loads are computed as a superposition of quasi-steady translation and rotation as well as added mass effects with an unsteady correction. The aeroelastic model is compared to experiments and higher-fidelity computations and shows acceptable agreement. The model is subsequently implemented in open-loop control simulations and demonstrates that motor dynamics and wing aeroelasticity have a significant impact on the loads generated by the wings, potentially introducing challenges in vehicle control.