4/8/2013 Written by Susan Mumm
Written by Written by Susan Mumm
Coming to Illinois from Iowa State University, the biomimeticist brings with him a three-year, $300,000 Air Force Young Investigator research grant he received this year for his project, “Bio-Inspired Integrated Sensing and Control of Flapping Flight for Micro Aerial Vehicles.”
According to Chung, “Bat-inspired flapping flight holds promise for creating micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) where rigid fixed wings drop substantially in aerodynamic performance. The successful reverse-engineering of flapping flight will potentially lead to an innovation in aircraft design, and push the frontier of our understanding of neurobiological mechanisms underlying animal flight and locomotion.”
“There’s a lot to learn from bio systems,” Chung said. “Bats can fly with damaged wings. They are so agile and highly maneuverable; they can make rapid 180-degree turns autonomously and they can fly indoors without colliding with obstacles.”
Bats’ wings are designed to allow the animals to move acrobatically. Thousands of tiny hairs on the wing membranes provide sensory information that controls the shape and pitch of the wings. This enables bats to adjust their flight in response to wind gusts and obstacles.
These qualities are desirable for small aircraft that could be used in surveillance, particularly in urban settings where obstacles hamper movement and satellite control is blocked.
Chung is working on a MAV with an engineered neural control system that mimics bats’ ability to synchronize their wings’ flapping and joint movements, allowing them to respond to changes in environment. Meanwhile, his ongoing research on vision-based navigation is expected to make a break-through with a superior information-to-weight ratio. A small camera allows the vehicle to see obstacles while an onboard computer generates a map for navigation.
So far, Chung has successfully developed a small indoor helicopter that can autonomously navigate a path. He also has produced a robotic bat that, docked on a test bed, has a range of eight independent movements in flapping its wings. The next step is to combine the two advances in a vehicle light enough to fly.
While expanding this research, Chung will continue developing new theories and methods to coordinate the movements of individual space or aerial vehicles in formation, a project that comprised his doctoral work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chung earned that degree in estimation and control in 2007, and earned his master’s, also at MIT, in 2002 in aeronautics and astronautics. He was summa cum laude in earning his bachelor’s in aerospace engineering in 1998 from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a leading science and engineering school in Asia.
Chung came to Iowa State in 2007, spending two years as Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering. Prior to that, he spent six years as a research assistant in the MIT Space Systems Laboratory and half a year as a research engineer in the New Initiative Office of the National Optical Astronomical Observatories in Tucson, Arizona. He was also a consultant for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter during 2007.
In addition to the 2008 AFOSR Young Investigator Award, Chung’s honors include Iowa State’s Aerospace Engineering’s Most Inspiring Professor Award, Fall 2008 and Spring 2009; Iowa State’s Aerospace Engineering’s Most interesting Line of Research Award, Fall 2008 and Spring 2009; Outstanding Faculty Award from Iowa State’s VEISHEA celebration in 2009; the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Electro/Information Technology Best Paper Award; a finalist for the 2006 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference Best Student Paper; an AT&T Asia/Pacific 2000 Leadership Award; and a 1998 KAIST Action Committee Presidential Award.
Chung is a Senior Member of AIAA and has been nominated as Technical Area Co-Chair of the 2010 AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference.