Publication

Abstract : The snake genus Chrysopelea is notable for its ability to fly without the components we normally associate with flying. In this work, a model to predict the path and glide angle taken by such snakes or aerial robots inspired by such mechanism is described. An earlier work used for such a prediction approximately models the aerodynamic lift force by blade element theory and thin airfoil theory. In this work, the moments around the CG are accounted for. The body of the snake is rotated around appropriate axes according to these moments which vary with time. Further, the forces and moments estimated over multiple time steps are used to continually update parameters like glide angle and free-stream velocity in this study. The calculated data is intended to assess the importance of accounting for the moments in predicting the flight path. The results show that the newly developed approach shows closer agreement with experimental data than the earlier model which neglected the moment. It is intended to use this model for waypoint following algorithms for such robots.