Flapping UAV equipped with center of gravity shift mechanism

Abstract

We developed a flapping UAV equipped with a mechanism of center-of-gravity shift, which leads to a variety of variations in the flight posture. The pitch angle can be largely varied by changing the position of the center-of-gravity, thereby the flapping UAV can change its flight posture seamlessly between the hovering flight and the horizontal flight. Aiming to realize the autonomous flight control, we have implemented a feedback control system. Stability of the hovering flight was ensured by the PID control of a tail propeller motor, which is equipped to control the yaw angle. Furthermore, we have succeeded in implementing a reinforcement learning control to stabilize the pitch angle in the horizontal flight mode.