Dynamics and control of a biomimetic single-wing nano air vehicle

This paper describes the Samarai - a rotating mono-wing nano air vehicle (NAV) designed at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories. Challenges uniquely associated with developing this type of vehicle are identified and a dynamic modeling and control synthesis procedure is described for tackling them. It is shown that, by modeling the rotating wing as a lower-complexity spinning disk, and using the disk states for feedback control, a very simple control design results. This approach is validated in simulation of flight maneuvers that include vertical, hovering and translational motion segments.