IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2017 - 29

A full path of a flight with the autopilot in stabilizing
fly-by-wire mode is shown in Figure 10; the figure eights
in the flight path are points when the bird was autonomously loitering.
Conclusion
Some 500 years after his time, Leonardo da Vinci's dreams
about artificial flapping-wing flight have come true in ornithopter toys, Robobees, kinematic seagulls, and, now, the
Robird. The Robird's similarity to the peregrine falcon
allows the spin-off company Clear Flight Solutions [18] to
use it for bird control, but, at least equally interesting, are the
research opportunities.
There is a qualitative understanding of how flappingwing flight at this scale works, and simple mechanical
and aerodynamical models have been developed. The
bird can be controlled in gliding and flapping-wing
flight, although the robustness can be improved. Current
work, therefore, focuses on improving the dynamic
model of the bird, by designing more realistic measurement set-ups and collecting data on both aerodynamic
and structural dynamical behavior. From this work, we
hope to learn how to improve the flight efficiency and
how to conduct proper, on-board state estimation and
control on such a highly dynamic system. We also hope
to learn whether the principles of the Robird are close to
how real birds fly and discover if we could use this system to study real birds.
Acknowledgments
We would like to extend our thanks to Harry Hoeijmakers
for initiating research on the Robird, providing valuable
comments on the article, and sharing his expertise on the
aerodynamics of flapping-wing vehicles. We also thank
Cyrano Vaseur and Berend van der Grinten, who have
designed, built, and improved the test setup for the aerodynamic studies.
References
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[4] B. Muller, R. Clothier, S. Watkins, A. Fisher. "Design of bio-inspired
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[7] G. C. H. E. de Croon, K. M. E. de Clercq, R. Ruijsink, B. Remes, and C.
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[15] H. W. Hoeijmakers and J. Mulder, "Computational and experimental investigation into flapping wing propulsion," in Proc. 54th AIAA
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[16] G. Taylor, R. Nudds, and A. Thomas, "Flying and swimming animals cruise at a Strouhal number tuned for high power efficiency,"
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[18] Clear Flight Solutions. (2016). Robotic bird control. [Online]. Available: http://clearflightsolutions.com

Gerrit Adriaan Folkertsma, Robotics and Mechatronics Group,
Center for Telematics and Information Technology Institute,
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. E-mail:
g.a.folkertsma@ieee.org.
Wessel Straatman, Clear Flight Solutions, Enschede, The
Netherlands. E-mail: w.straatman@clearflightsolutions.com.
Nico Nijenhuis, Clear Flight Solutions, Enschede, The Netherlands. E-mail: nijenhuis.nico@gmail.com.
Cornelis Henricus Venner, Department of Engineering Fluid
Dynamics, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of
Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. E-mail: c.h.venner@
utwente.nl.
Stefano Stramigioli, Robotics and Mechatronics Group, Center for Telematics and Information Technology Institute,
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. E-mail:
S.Stramigioli@ieee.org.

SEPTEMBER 2017

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2017
