RoboBat: Dynamics and Control of a Robotic Bat Flapping Flying Testbed

This paper investigates the control of the phase di erence in between three di erent motions of bat ight: pitching, apping, and lead-lag. For active control, a robotic bat test bed capable of simulating di erent wing motions is used to test the control of these wing motions and the phase di erences using central pattern generators (CPG’s). Previous work with the robotic bat is expanded upon by modifying the robotic bat test bed to allow for three dimensional motions of the entire bat, instead of only the wings. This is done by mounting the robotic bat onto a 3D pendulum. Experiments analyzing the steady state behavior of the bat’s ight with varying phase di erences showed a change of pitch while elevation and forward velocity remains constant. This shows promising results regarding the relation between phase di erences of wing motions and longitudinal stability.