Methods and apparatus to achieve independent six degree control of flapping wing micro air vehicle

In an aircraft including a first wing planform and a second wing planform driven by a corresponding first actuator and a corresponding second actuator, wherein each of the first wing planform and the second wing planform performs an upstroke and a downstroke over a complete wingbeat cycle, a method of configuring a wing velocity profile, the method comprising:

• segmenting the complete wingbeat cycle into a set of quarter-strokes including a first quarter-stroke, a second quarter-stroke, a third quarter-stroke, and a fourth quarter-stroke;
• generating time-varying quarter-stroke wing position commands for each of the first and second wing planforms to produce wing flapping trajectories that generate non-zero, cycle averaged lift and drag forces and alter a cycle average center of pressure of each of the first and the second wing planforms relative to the aircraft;
• wherein the wing position commands include velocities and positions with temporally symmetric and asymmetric quarter-stroke components for the first wing planform and the second wing planform;
• and
• wherein the first wing planform and the second wing planform produce controlled six-degrees-of freedom vehicle motion without using actuators in excess of the first actuator and the second actuator.