Controlling Pitching Instability in 3D Flapping Flight

Flying insects actively control their wings to maintain the stability in steady flight as well as to execute maneuvers. The control strategies depend on the coupling of sensory feedback loops of insects and the underlying dynamics of the 3D flapping flight. In this talk, we first present a general method for efficiently simulating the 3D flapping flight of the coupled wing-body system in the quasi-steady limit. We then quantify the stability of the periodic solutions that correspond to equilibrium flight. The analysis shows that the flapping system exhibits an inherent instability in pitching, and this instability can be further understood in a reduced-order model. We propose a simple control strategy for stabilizing the pitching by modulating wing motions.