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as a landing and take-off pad, with shock absorber material like rubber/nitrile

rubber/Si material.

Navigation of MAV

Estimating the position, orientation and velocity of a flier is navigation. Navigation

is a process of identifying the instantaneous values of the flying object position in

terms of co-ordinates (x, y, z). It is measured from a known origin along with the

direction and the velocity of flight. In simple, it is to estimate the position, orientation

and velocity of a flying object.

Collett and Collett [4] explained the usage of path integration by insects, which

requires a way of storing states of accumulator at significant places to recall the

goals subsequently and a kind of computing the direction to reach the required goals.

Most of the migrating insects use the navigation as a tool, and they use different

methods of navigation. For example, honeybee foragers communicate the position

of food sources using their waggle dance and by path integration so that the rest of

the bees acquire the information. The location of the food is obtained from the dance

signals in terms of direction and distance from the hive. Direction is defined in terms

of horizontal angle made by feeder, hive and azimuthal position of sun. Similarly,

ants are reported to be the insects using path integration successfully to reach their

destination. However, desert ants are also found to use vector navigation techniques

to reach food sites. A forager to perform path integration needs to monitor changes

in position by updating a kind of accumulator.

The ability to navigate needs two additional features: Recording and Comparator.

Recording feature explains the recording of the accumulator state of destinations. In

comparator feature, it explains each current accumulator state by subtracting from the

total recorded states. In simple, vector navigation explains the collection of various

processes updating accumulators, recording the state of accumulators and comparing

current and recorded states of accumulators to direct the movement to reach the

destination.

Considerations for Bio-mimicking MAV Designs

The conceptual trajectory of MAV can be as follows:

a.

The trajectory in level flight to reach an area of surveillance must be relatively

at a shorter distance with short takeoff

b.

Hovering or circling flight is needed at the area of surveillance

c.

The MAV needs to return to the launching point (pad) after finishing the

surveillance task.