State estimation and control is a well-studied problem in conventional aerial vehicles such as multi-rotors. But multi-rotors, while versatile, are not suitable for all applications. Due to turbulent airflow from ground effects, multi-rotors cannot fly in confined spaces. Flapping wing micro aerial vehicles have gained research interest in recent years due to their lightweight structure and ability to fly in tight spaces. Further, their soft deformable wings also make them relatively safer to fly around humans. This thesis will describe the progress made towards developing state estimation and controls on Northeastern University's Aerobat, a bio-inspired flapping wing micro aerial vehicle, with the goal of achieving untethered autonomous flight. Aerobat has a total weight of about 40g and an additional payload capacity of 40g, precluding the use of large processors or heavy sensors. With limited computation resources, this report discusses the challenges in achieving perception on such a platform and the steps taken towards untethered autonomous flight.

翻译：状态估计与控制是多旋翼等常规飞行器中研究充分的问题，但多旋翼虽具多功能性，并不适用于所有场景。受地面效应导致的湍流气流影响，多旋翼无法在狭小空间内飞行。扑翼微型飞行器因其轻量化结构及在紧凑空间中的飞行能力，近年来成为研究热点。其柔软可变形翼还使其在人类周围飞行时相对更安全。本论文阐述了东北大学Aerobat（一种仿生扑翼微型飞行器）在实现无系留自主飞行目标过程中，于状态估计与控制领域取得的研究进展。Aerobat总重约40克，额外载荷能力40克，因此无法搭载大型处理器或重型传感器。在计算资源有限的情况下，本报告探讨了在此类平台上实现感知所面临的挑战，以及为实现无系留自主飞行所采取的步骤。