Tailless Flapping Wing Propulsion and Control Development for the Nano Hummingbird Micro Air Vehicle

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program in 2005, with the goal of developing a new class of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). These vehicles were to employ biological mimicry, have a maximum dimension of 7.5 cm, a total mass of 10 g or less including a 2 g payload, and a speed range from sustained hover up to 10 m/s. As part of the NAV program, AeroVironment has developed the Nano Hummingbird prototype aircraft. This vehicle has demonstrated sustained hovering flight with propulsion and control achieved using only two flapping wings. The aircraft mimics the appearance of a biological hummingbird, and is capable of hovering continuously for several minutes, and flying at speeds up to 6.7 m/s, while transmitting color video to a remote ground station in real time. This paper describes the development of the Nano Hummingbird, highlights its performance capabilities, and provides detail on the design of the aircraft subsystems.