Birds of a feather : designing feathered morphing wings for soft aerial robots
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Gliding birds morph their wings through continuous planforms to attain robust flight performance and maneuverability. These seamless shape changes are enabled by soft overlapping feathers moving in a coordinated fashion within the wing. While individual flight feathers are flexible, separate elements that connect only at their bases, together they form an avian wing capable of powering nimble flight. By understanding how feathers are coordinated within an avian wing, key biological findings can inspire designs of wings for morphing flexible paneled robotic wings. Conversely, biohybrid robotic designs used to make biological measurements that might not be possible can elucidate new biological insights. The integrative work presented in this dissertation combines biomechanical measurements and robotic design covering multiple morphological levels of organization in feathered wings. We measure the wing feather and bone kinematics, investigate adjacent feather interactions, and examine feather microstructures. These experiments update the previous hypothesis of feather "friction" from the mid 1900's and provide quantitative evidence that feathers act as directional probabilistic fasteners. The biological discoveries inform the bio-inspired design of underactuated robotic morphing wings validated through wind tunnel testing. Feathered morphing wings are incorporated into a biohybrid robot that is capable of continuous morphing during outdoor flight, pushing aerial robotics towards more robust and maneuverable flight. This dissertation contributes to both aerial robotics and biology, applying techniques including motion capture, computerized tomography, and 3D imaging. We take a multi-scale approach to gain insight into the underlying mechanisms that coordinate flight feathers, measuring feather interactions at different hierarchical levels of organization from the avian wing at the organismal level down to the feather microstructures at the cellular level. These biological measurements provide the foundation for the design of biohybrid aerial robots, enabling successful wing morphing and demonstrating that feathers of a bird stick together
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Matloff, Laura Yu |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Lentink, David, 1975- |
| Thesis advisor | Lentink, David, 1975- |
| Thesis advisor | Cutkosky, Mark R |
| Thesis advisor | Okamura, Allison |
| Degree committee member | Cutkosky, Mark R |
| Degree committee member | Okamura, Allison |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Laura Yu Matloff |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Laura Yu Matloff
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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