The field of aerial robotics is an interdisciplinary field that is evolving and progressing at an increasing rate. One of the emerging topics in the aerial robotics community is bio-inspired flight.
The understanding of the aerodynamical, structural, and behavioral patterns of natural birds is essential for the development of robust and high performance flapping-wing aerial robots. However, this is not an easy task!
In the Portwings project, which is an ERC advanced grant of Prof. Stramigioli, we are aiming for the development of advanced robotic birds by understanding and decoding the secrets of flapping-flight of birds. One of the milestones in this journey is the development of a simulation environment in which control algorithms for such advanced robots can be tested.
The goal of this B.Sc. thesis is to develop a high-fidelity simulation environment for a prototypical morphing-wing UAV using ROS2 and Gazebo.
Within this development process, another goal is to identify the software architecture "under the hood" used to simulate already existing fixed-wing UAVs and how this architecture should be extended for morphing-wing UAVs and (in the future) to flapping-wing UAVs.\\
For more information:
- http://www.portwings.eu/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkTrZhPtzXQ
- http://gazebosim.org/tutorials?tut=aerodynamics&cat=physics#UsingtheLiftDragPlugin