Trajectory planning for a batlike flapping wing robot Planning flight trajectories is important for practical application of flying systems. This topic has been well studied for fixed and rotary winged aerial vehicles, but far fewer works have explored it for flapping systems. Bat Bot (B2) is a bioinspired flying robot that mimics bat flight, and it possesses the ability to follow a designed trajectory with its onboard electronics and sensing. However, B2xe2x80x99s periodic flapping and its complex aerodynamics present major challenges in modeling and planning feasible flight paths. In this paper, we present a generalized approach that uses a model with direct collocation methods to plan dynamically feasible flight maneuvers. The model is made to be both accurate through collection of load cell force data for parameter selection and computationally inexpensive such that it can be used efficiently in a nonlinear solver. We compute the trajectory of launching B2 to a desired altitude and a banked turn maneuver, and we validate our methods with experimental flight results of tracking the launch trajectory with a PD controller.

Soft biohybrid morphing wings with feathers underactuated by wrist and finger motion Since the Wright Flyer, engineers have strived to develop flying machines with morphing wings that can control flight as deftly as birds. Birds morph their wing planform parameters simultaneouslyxe2x80x94including sweep, span, and areaxe2x80x94in a way that has proven to be particularly challenging to embody robotically. Previous solutions have primarily centered around the classical aerospace paradigm of controlling every degree of freedom to ensure predictable performance, but underperform compared with birds. To understand how birds accomplish wing morphing, we measured the kinematics of wing flexion and extension in common pigeons, Columba livia. The skeletal and feather kinematics show that the 20 primary and 20 secondary feathers are coordinated via approximately linear transfer functions controlled by wrist and finger motion. To replicate this control principle in a robot, we developed a biohybrid morphing wing with real feathers to understand the underlying design principles. The outcome, PigeonBot, embodies 42 degrees of freedom that control the position of 40 elastically connected feathers via four servoactuated wrist and finger joints. Our flight tests demonstrate that the soft feathered wings morph rapidly and robustly under aerodynamic loading. They not only enable wing morphing but also make robot interactions safer, the wing more robust to crashing, and the wing reparable via xe2x80x9cpreening.xe2x80x9d In flight tests, we found that both asymmetric wrist and finger motion can initiate turn maneuversxe2x80x94evidence that birds may use their fingers to steer in flight.