An improved evolvable oscillator for all flight mode control of an insect-scale flapping-wing micro air vehicle

In previous work, we presented an adaptive evolvable oscillator that enables online, in-flight, adaptation of a rigorous controller for hovering in an insect-scale flapping wing micro air vehicle based on the Harvard RoboFly. That particular evolvable hardware oscillator, however, was a proof-of-concept prototype and is incapable of supporting the types of signal adaptation necessary to support on-line correction for other flight modes (E.G. roll, pitch, forward translation, etc.). This paper introduces a new oscillator design capable of supporting signal adaptation for all possible flight modes of the vehicle. It will also present preliminary experimental results demonstrating the adaptive oscillator to be capable of correcting for vehicle faults in a two degree of freedom (2DOF) control task requiring simultaneous regulation of vehicle altitude and roll. The paper will conclude with discussion of application of this adaptive, evolvable oscillator to full vehicle control.