A Simulation Platform for Flapping-Wing Vehicles

Engineering notes

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为 VLA、具身智能、人形机器人控制、机器人操作等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

Flapping-wing aerial vehicles (FWAVs) demonstrate remarkable agility but face substantial autonomy challenges due to their high sensitivity to aerodynamic disturbances and limited sensor payload capacity. Current simulation platforms typically rely on oversimplified laminar flow assumptions and idealized sensor models, failing to capture the complex turbulence patterns and perceptual limitations encountered in real-world operation. This simulation-to-reality discrepancy significantly impedes the development of robust autonomy systems for FWAVs. We introduce FWAV-Sim, a high-fidelity Unity-based simulation framework that integrates: (1) a composite aerodynamic model combining quasi-steady blade-element theory with bluff-body drag effects, (2) spatiotemporally correlated turbulence generation through fractal noise synthesis, and (3) realistic sensor simulation including noisy IMU measurements, LiDAR point clouds, and RGB camera feeds. Our platform enables scalable generation of synchronized datasets containing ground-truth vehicle states, aerodynamic forces, turbulent wind fields, and multi-modal sensor streams. Experimental validation demonstrates that autonomy pipelines (including both controllers and perception systems) developed in FWAV-Sim exhibit significantly improved simulation capability, thereby advancing the outstanding performance in simulation-based development for flapping-wing aerial systems.

Links and sources

• Official / arXiv page
• PDF from original source

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