Glide-mode regulator for the Robird

Clear Flight Solutions has a robotic bird, the Robird, which can be used for bird-friendly pest bird control. The robot mimics the way a peregrine falcon flies realistically including flapping wings, which allows the robot to fly like a real bird.

The Robird also has a glide mode in which it does not have to flap its wings. What happens now to get the wings into glide mode is once the wings are almost in the right position they are abruptly braked by the motor. This puts a lot of stress on the motor and motor control unit and next to that it is not very accurate, there is, so to speak, some luck involved in getting the wings into glide-mode.

The assignment is to investigate the dynamics of the wings and motor, such that a model for accurate state estimation can be made. Based on this model a controller will be developed that can smoothly and reliably bring the wings in glide position. It is possibly also needed to determine the characteristic curve of the electric motor in order to be able to make a braking curve, such that the motor can be stopped from every position and every speed smoothly. This controller will have to be implemented on an embedded system, probably Arduino based, and will have to interface with the already existing hardware of the Robird.