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Drones
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Bio-Inspired Drones
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Bio-Inspired Drones

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Drone Design and Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 43278

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mirko Kovac

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Director, Aerial Robotics Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Interests: unmanned aerial vehicles; aerial robotics; bio-inspired design; soft aerial robotics; evolutionary biology
Dr. Sophie Armanini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Faculty of Aerospace and Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, Willy-Messerschmitt-Str. 1, 82024 Taufkirchen/Ottobrunn, Germany
2. Aerial Robotics Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Interests: flight dynamics; system identification; flapping-wing/ bio-inspired flight; micro air vehicles; control systems
Prof. Dr. Abdessattar Abdelkefi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
Interests: energy harvesting; nonlinear dynamics; vibration and control; smart materials; aeroelasticity; fluid-structure interactions; micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS); flight dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to rapid technological advances, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones can now be small and relatively inexpensive to build and use. Therefore, they allow for vast freedom in exploring novel designs and applications that could not be conceived or achieved on manned aircraft and have consequently become highly attractive to the commercial and research sectors. A vast range of UAV applications are currently being explored, ranging from aerial photography and package delivery all the way to crop inspection, fire-fighting, and search and rescue. The ever-growing range of potential UAV applications calls for new capabilities that often cannot be met with conventional solutions based on manned aircraft. Specific applications can require novel abilities, such as effective interaction with the environment, landing on vertical surfaces or exploring unknown and dynamically changing environments. The over-arching challenges in the field include the design and manufacturing of small-scale UAVs that can achieve a sufficient flight time, carry a useful payload, and perform complex tasks autonomously. Solutions need to be developed for swarming, collision avoidance and mitigation, integration with manned air traffic, handling adverse weather, navigation in complex dynamic environments, exploring cluttered indoor spaces, etc.
A rich source of inspiration to tackle the aforementioned challenges is provided by nature. Thanks to millions of years of evolution, nature showcases elaborate and effective solutions for many complex tasks, including locomotion, sensing, control and navigation. Flying animals, for instance, are typically adept at hovering, rapid forward flight, complex rapid manoeuvring, high-precision navigation, robust control, and multimodal mobility. In aerial robotics, bio-inspired solutions are thus becoming widespread, with examples including flapping-wing flight mechanisms, bird-inspired perching, insect-inspired visual navigation, and bat-inspired echolocation. Bio-inspiration can both allow for entirely new capabilities and lead to novel solutions to existing challenges.
This Special Issue invites submissions addressing the development of novel, bio-inspired UAVs/drones, including but not limited to: The development and investigation of new robotic platform designs, soft robotics and novel materials, adaptive and morphing design, bio-inspired control, multisensory navigation, obstacle avoidance, environment interaction and perching, machine learning applications, experimental methods and testing, datasets, demonstration of new applications, as well as the use of bio-inspired robots to better understand biological systems.

Dr. Mirko Kovac
Dr. Sophie Armanini
Dr. Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Novel bio-inspired air vehicle design
  • Robot-inspired biology studies
  • Autonomous flight
  • Multiterrain capability and multimodal locomotion
  • Bio-inspired control and navigation
  • Actuation mechanisms design
  • Environment interaction and adaptation
  • Machine learning applications
  • Bio-inspired materials
  • Soft aerial robots
  • Bio-inspired sensing and actuation
  • Bio-inspired aerodynamics
  • Bio-inspired fluid–structure interaction
  • Application studies including real-world field testing
  • Databases on bio-inspired robots

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 9141 KiB  
Article
Effect of Ducted Multi-Propeller Configuration on Aerodynamic Performance in Quadrotor Drone
by Yi Li, Koichi Yonezawa and Hao Liu
Drones 2021, 5(3), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030101 - 19 Sep 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 7550
Abstract
Motivated by a bioinspired optimal aerodynamic design of a multi-propeller configuration, here we propose a ducted multi-propeller design to explore the improvement of lift force production and FM efficiency in quadrotor drones through optimizing the ducted multi-propeller configuration. We first conducted a CFD-based [...] Read more.
Motivated by a bioinspired optimal aerodynamic design of a multi-propeller configuration, here we propose a ducted multi-propeller design to explore the improvement of lift force production and FM efficiency in quadrotor drones through optimizing the ducted multi-propeller configuration. We first conducted a CFD-based study to explore a high-performance duct morphology in a ducted single-propeller model in terms of aerodynamic performance and duct volume. The effect of a ducted multi-propeller configuration on aerodynamic performance is then investigated in terms of the tip distance and the height difference of propellers under a hovering state. Our results indicate that the tip distance-induced interactions have a noticeable effect in impairing the lift force production and FM efficiency but are limited to small tip distances, whereas the height difference-induced interactions have an impact on enhancing the aerodynamic performance over a certain range. An optimal ducted multi-propeller configuration with a minimal tip distance and an appropriate height difference was further examined through a combination of CFD simulations and a surrogate model in a broad-parameter space, which enables a significant improvement in both lift force production and FM efficiency for the multirotor, and thus provides a potential optimal design for ducted multirotor UAVs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Drones)
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25 pages, 6457 KiB  
Article
On the Aerodynamic Analysis and Conceptual Design of Bioinspired Multi-Flapping-Wing Drones
by Ethan Billingsley, Mehdi Ghommem, Rui Vasconcellos and Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Drones 2021, 5(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030064 - 18 Jul 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4284
Abstract
Many research studies have investigated the characteristics of bird flights as a source of bioinspiration for the design of flapping-wing micro air vehicles. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no drone design targeted the exploitation of the aerodynamic benefits associated with [...] Read more.
Many research studies have investigated the characteristics of bird flights as a source of bioinspiration for the design of flapping-wing micro air vehicles. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no drone design targeted the exploitation of the aerodynamic benefits associated with avian group formation flight. Therefore, in this work, a conceptual design of a novel multi-flapping-wing drone that incorporates multiple pairs of wings arranged in a V-shape is proposed in order to simultaneously increase the propulsive efficiency and achieve superior performance. First, a mission plan is established, and a weight estimation is conducted for both 3-member and 5-member configurations of the proposed air vehicle. Several wing shapes and airfoils are considered, and aerodynamic simulations are conducted, to determine the optimal planform, airfoil, formation angle, and angle of attack. The simulation results reveal that the proposed bioinspired design can achieve a propulsive efficiency of 73.8%. A stability analysis and tail sizing procedure are performed for both 3-member and 5-member configurations. In addition, multiple flapping mechanisms are inspected for implementation in the proposed designs. Finally, the completed prototypes’ models of the proposed multi-flapping-wing air vehicles are presented, and their features are discussed. The aim of this research is to provide a framework for the conceptual design of bioinspired multi-flapping-wing drones and to demonstrate the sizing, weight estimation, and design procedures for this new type of air vehicles. This work establishes the first multi-flapping-wing drone design which exploits the aerodynamic features of the V-formation flight observed in birds to achieve superior performance in terms of payload and endurance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Drones)
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21 pages, 4268 KiB  
Article
Towards Improved Hybrid Actuation Mechanisms for Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles: Analytical and Experimental Investigations
by Mostafa Hassanalian and Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Drones 2019, 3(3), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3030073 - 13 Sep 2019
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 7262
Abstract
A new strategy is proposed in order to effectively design the components of actuation mechanisms for flapping wing micro air vehicles. To this end, the merits and drawbacks of some existing types of conventional flapping actuation mechanisms are first discussed qualitatively. Second, the [...] Read more.
A new strategy is proposed in order to effectively design the components of actuation mechanisms for flapping wing micro air vehicles. To this end, the merits and drawbacks of some existing types of conventional flapping actuation mechanisms are first discussed qualitatively. Second, the relationships between the design of flapping wing actuation mechanism and the entrance requirements including the upstroke and downstroke angles and flapping frequency are determined. The effects of the components of the actuation mechanism on the kinematic and kinetic parameters are investigated. It is shown that there are optimum values for different parameters in order to design an efficient mechanism. Considering the optimized features for an actuation mechanism, the design, analysis, and fabrication of a new hybrid actuation mechanism for FWMAV named “Thunder I” with fourteen components consisting of two six-bar mechanisms are performed. The results show that this designed hybrid actuation mechanism has high symmetrical flapping motion with hinged connections for all components. The proposed methodology for the modeling and fabrication of Thunder I’s actuation mechanism can be utilized as guidelines to design efficient FWMAVs actuation mechanisms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Drones)
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25 pages, 7399 KiB  
Article
Nature-Inspired Drone Swarming for Real-Time Aerial Data-Collection Under Dynamic Operational Constraints
by Hanno Hildmann, Ernö Kovacs, Fabrice Saffre and A. F. Isakovic
Drones 2019, 3(3), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3030071 - 04 Sep 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 9359
Abstract
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with acceptable performance are becoming commercially available at an affordable cost. Due to this, the use of drones for real-time data collection is becoming common practice by individual practitioners in the areas of e.g., precision agriculture and civil defense [...] Read more.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with acceptable performance are becoming commercially available at an affordable cost. Due to this, the use of drones for real-time data collection is becoming common practice by individual practitioners in the areas of e.g., precision agriculture and civil defense such as fire fighting. At the same time, as UAVs become a house-hold item, a plethora of issues—which can no longer be ignored and considered niche problems—are coming of age. These range from legal and ethical questions to technical matters such as how to implement and operate a communication infrastructure to maintain control over deployed devices. With these issues being addressed, approaches that focus on enabling collectives of devices to operate semi-autonomously are also increasing in relevance. In this article we present a nature-inspired algorithm that enables a UAV-swarm to operate as a collective which provides real-time data such as video footage. The collective is able to autonomously adapt to changing resolution requirements for specific locations within the area under surveillance. Our distributed approach significantly reduces the requirements on the communication infrastructure and mitigates the computational cost otherwise incurred. In addition, if the UAVs themselves were to be equipped with even rudimentary data-analysis capabilities, the swarm could react in real-time to the data it generates and self-regulate which locations within its operational area it focuses on. The approach was tested in a swarm of 25 UAVs; we present out preliminary performance evaluation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Drones)
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21 pages, 12585 KiB  
Article
Wing Design, Fabrication, and Analysis for an X-Wing Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle
by Boon Hong Cheaw, Hann Woei Ho and Elmi Abu Bakar
Drones 2019, 3(3), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3030065 - 20 Aug 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6755
Abstract
Flapping-wing Micro Air Vehicles (FW-MAVs), inspired by small insects, have limitless potential to be capable of performing tasks in urban and indoor environments. Through the process of mimicking insect flight, however, there are a lot of challenges for successful flight of these vehicles, [...] Read more.
Flapping-wing Micro Air Vehicles (FW-MAVs), inspired by small insects, have limitless potential to be capable of performing tasks in urban and indoor environments. Through the process of mimicking insect flight, however, there are a lot of challenges for successful flight of these vehicles, which include their design, fabrication, control, and propulsion. To this end, this paper investigates the wing design and fabrication of an X-wing FW-MAV and analyzes its performance in terms of thrust generation. It was designed and developed using a systematic approach. Two pairs of wings were fabricated with a traditional cut-and-glue method and an advanced vacuum mold method. The FW-MAV is equipped with inexpensive and tiny avionics, such as the smallest Arduino controller board, a remote-control receiver, standard sensors, servos, a motor, and a 1-cell battery. Thrust measurement was conducted to compare the performance of different wings at full throttle. Overall, this FW-MAV produces maximum vertical thrust at a pitch angle of 10 degrees. The wing having stiffeners and manufactured using the vacuum mold produces the highest thrust among the tested wings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Drones)
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24 pages, 10153 KiB  
Article
Insights into Sensitivity of Wing Shape and Kinematic Parameters Relative to Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wing Nano Air Vehicles
by G. Throneberry, M. Hassanalian and A. Abdelkefi
Drones 2019, 3(2), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3020049 - 19 Jun 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3990
Abstract
In this work, seven wings inspired from insects’ wings, including those inspired by the bumblebee, cicada, cranefly, fruitfly, hawkmoth, honeybee, and twisted parasite, are patterned and analyzed in FlapSim software in forward and hovering flight modes for two scenarios, namely, similar wingspan (20 [...] Read more.
In this work, seven wings inspired from insects’ wings, including those inspired by the bumblebee, cicada, cranefly, fruitfly, hawkmoth, honeybee, and twisted parasite, are patterned and analyzed in FlapSim software in forward and hovering flight modes for two scenarios, namely, similar wingspan (20 cm) and wing surface (0.005 m2). Considering their similar kinematics, the time histories of the aerodynamic forces of lift, thrust, and required mechanical power of the inspired wings are calculated, shown, and compared for both scenarios. The results obtained from FlapSim show that wing shape strongly impacts the performance and aerodynamic characteristics of the chosen seven wings. To study the effects of different geometrical and physical factors including flapping frequency, elevation amplitude, pronation amplitude, stroke-plane angle, flight speed, wing material, and wingspan, several analyses are carried out on the honeybee-inspired shape, which had a 20 cm wingspan. This study can be used to evaluate the efficiency of different bio-inspired wing shapes and may provide a guideline for comparing the performance of flapping wing nano air vehicles with forward flight and hovering capabilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Drones)
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