Bird-Inspired Gust Soaring for Unmanned Air Vehicles

受鸟启发的无人机阵风翱翔

• 批准号: 2437318
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2437318
• 关键词: Bird; Inspired; Gust; Soaring; Unmanned

The range and endurance of small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) is currently hindered by their limited battery capacity. Many SUAVs have a maximum flight time of up to ninety minutes, severely restricting their utility and preventing their benefits from being realised in fields such as disaster response, remote sensing (e.g. for agriculture and environmental monitoring) and reconnaissance. By performing particular manoeuvres to interact with local airflow appropriately, these vehicles can increase their potential or air-relative kinetic energy (the energy available to do useful work [1]), enabling them to fly further and for longer; this energy gain flight is known as 'soaring'. Updrafts of air form one condition for soaring flight (known as 'static soaring'); a bird can gain a 'free ride' to higher altitudes by flying in a thermal, for example, increasing its potential energy. Energy can also be extracted in nonuniform wind fields, where the wind direction and strength change in space and time, by utilising wind gradients - a technique known as 'gradient soaring'. Albatross are famous for exploiting this technique within the strong wind gradients above the ocean (in the atmospheric boundary layer) to achieve long-distance low-energy-expenditure travel. Automatic control systems for exploiting updrafts and large-scale gradients have received significant research, however these energy sources are not applicable for vehicles unable to deviate substantially from their desired flight path to exploit them, due for example to noise abatement procedures or a requirement to keep out of sight. Birds can be observed to gain energy en route through appropriate reactions to stochastic gradients - small-scale spatial gradients, caused for example by buildings, and gusts (gradients in time). This is known as 'gust soaring'. The goal of this research is to develop new gust soaring control algorithms for SUAVs in order to extend their range and endurance. The research will particularly focus on urban environments, where small-scale spatial gradients are common due to the complex interactions between the wind and structures.

目前，小型无人驾驶飞机（SUAV）的范围和耐力受其电池容量有限的阻碍。许多SUAV的飞行时间长达90分钟，严重限制了其效用，并阻止了他们的收益在灾难响应，遥感（例如农业和环境监测）等领域中实现。通过执行特定的操纵以适当与当地气流互动，这些车辆可以增加其潜在或空气式的动能（可用于进行有用工作的能量[1]），从而使它们能够更远，更长的飞行；这种能量增益飞行被称为“飙升”。空气的上升气流形成飞行飞行的一种条件（称为“静态飙升”）；例如，通过在热力中飞行来增加其势能，可以通过飞行来获得“自由骑行”。能量也可以通过使用风梯度（一种称为“梯度飙升”的技术来提取，在非均匀的风场中，风向和时空的强度变化。信天翁以在海洋上方的强风梯度（在大气边界层中）中利用这种技术而闻名，以实现长距离低能量的旅行。用于利用上升气流和大规模梯度的自动控制系统已经进行了大量研究，但是这些能源不适用于无法实质性偏离其所需的飞行路径以利用它们的车辆，例如，由于消除噪声程序或需要保持视线的要求。可以观察到鸟类在通过适当的反应对随机梯度的适当反应（例如由建筑物和阵风（及时的梯度）引起的小规模空间梯度）的情况下获得能量。这被称为“阵风飙升”。这项研究的目的是为Suavs开发新的阵风飙升算法，以扩大其范围和耐力。这项研究将特别关注城市环境，由于风与结构之间的复杂相互作用，小规模的空间梯度很常见。