PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: A12-020

Description

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) with West Virginia University (WVU) are developing an innovative approach for dramatically increasing the efficiency and agility of MAVs. Hawkmoths were studied to understand, at the micro-scale, how they achieve their impressive agility during obstacle avoidance maneuvers and in recovering from upsets due to collisions and gusts. These studies led to a focus on the micro-feathers covering their wings; in particular on in-flight clustering of the feathers. To investigate this further bioinspired piezo-unimorph feathers were developed that act as flow sensor for detecting both the amplitude and frequency of sub boundary layer turbulence. Motion of these feathers can be used passively or actively to modify low Reynolds number flows. The location and clustering of sensor/actuator micro-feathers are critical to the phenomenological understanding and mapping to manmade system. PSI and WVU believe that correctly clustered bioinspired micro-feather covered aerodynamic surfaces (e.g. wings and rotors) will dramatically improve the efficiency and aerodynamic robustness of many classes of MAVs systems including: wing warping, hovering rotor supported, and flapping flight. In Phase II the theory behind micro-feather covered aerodynamic surfaces will be developed and a prototype system will be developed to demonstrate the enhanced efficiency and agility in real-world environments.