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Biomimetic Control of Flying Robots

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Army
Contract: W911QX-10-C-0086
Agency Tracking Number: A2-4079
Amount: $3,633,967.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: A08-056
Solicitation Number: 2008.2
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2010
Award Year: 2010
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2010-09-23
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2017-09-29
Small Business Information
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810
United States
DUNS: 073800062
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Thomas Vaneck
 Vice President
 (978) 689-0003
 vaneck@psicorp.com
Business Contact
 B. Green
Title: President and CEO
Phone: (978) 689-0003
Email: green@psicorp.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) demonstrated in Phase I that it is possible to design a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) which is robust to collisions by using techniques similar to what insects use to recover from collisions while still in flight. Observational studies of insects colliding with objects (high speed films of instrumented insects) conducted at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory show that the organisms maneuver and recover from collisions reflexively, likely with little to no high level processing of sensory data. PSI demonstrated the feasibility of using Central Pattern Generator neural networks (CPG) in an MAV reflexive flight control system; a system that does not require a central processing unit, microcontroller, or finite state machine. In Phase II PSI will complete the design of the CPG-based reflexive flight controller and will demonstrate its performance on PSIs robust quad-rotor MAV demonstrator. The reflexive flight controller will be capable of performing inner-loop stabilization of the MAV while simultaneously avoiding obstacles and recovering from upsets and collisions.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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