Advisor:

• Prof. Xinyan Deng

Description:

The project involves the study of locomotion principles of flying animals and the design of bio-inspired robots with similar flight performance to their natural counterparts.  The robots will be equipped with high frequency flapping wings and be able to hover and perform acrobatic maneuvers.  This is a multidisciplinary project that involves aerodynamics, dynamics, controls, mechanical design, fabrication, electronics, programming, microcontrollers, sensors, etc.  

Goals:

The goal of this project involves the design and control of bio-inspired robots, as well as discovering biological locomotion principles using such robots.

Relevant Technologies:

Design, integrated circuits, motors, microcontrollers, sensors, 3D printing, composites, software simulation, modeling and controls, experimental fluids, robotics.

Website: 

https://engineering.purdue.edu/~xdeng/

Recently in the news:

IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/robot-hummingbird-is-almost-as-agile-as-the-real-thing

Purdue: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2019/Q2/hummingbird-robot-uses-ai-to-soon-go-where-drones-cant.html

Prerequisites:

One or more of the following areas: 1. Design and fabrication (CAD, mechanical or circuit design); 2. Programming (C, Matlab or Python); 3. Strong hands-on experience in data acquisition and signal processing; 4. System modeling and control.