Model-Free Control of a Hovering Flapping-Wing Microrobot The Design Process of a Stabilizing Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output Controller

We present a model-free experimental method to find a control strategy for achieving stable flight of a dual-actuator biologically inspired flapping-wing flying microrobot during hovering. The main idea proposed in this work is the sequential tuning of parameters for an increasingly more complex strategy in order to sequentially accomplish more complex tasks: upright stable flight, straight vertical flight, and stable hovering with altitude and position control. Each term of the resulting multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) controller has a physical intuitive meaning and the control structure is relatively simple such that it could potentially be applied to other kinds of flapping-wing robots.