Bio-inspired Engineering Systems

Professor Ephrahim Garcia
Laboratory for Intelligent Machines
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cornell University

Abstract

Presented will be a survey of bio-inspired robotic systems and flight vehicles. Nature provides interesting and well evolved design solutions to many engineering problems. While one cannot mimic these evolved systems with the elegance or fine functional detail that we see in nature, we can allow ourselves to be lead to creative machine designs that enable capabilities unlike anything else previously built. A summary of machines from the meso- to macroscale will be presented, including robotic insects, exoskeletons, and concepts in morphing aircraft.

An analysis of the aerodynamics of morphing, or shape changing, aircraft will be presented. This analysis will present a new variant of lifting line theory to predict the lift, drag and pitching moment for wings of any planform. These changing variable characteristics result in a vehicle with nonlinear, time variant parameters that can greatly affect the performance of the aircraft. This analysis is then applied to predict the behavior and dynamic characteristics of a shape changing vehicle in flight.

Thursday, November 3rd
337 Towne Bldg.
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.