An Optimal Control Design of Albatrosses Dynamic Soaring with Crosswind

Abstract

Nature has inspired many engineering designs, for example learning from bird to build aircraft. Nature has produced incredible science designs through billion years of evolution process. Plants and animals are capable to adapt and to synchronize with their new environments. Because of this evolution, the designs have optimal mechanism for the purpose of survival. Dynamic soaring is a flight technique by which seabirds extract energy from horizontally moving air at altitude layer close to the sea surface. In this paper, optimal control technique is applied to investigate the minimum wind strength and optimal time cycle that are required by albatrosses for dynamic soaring with crosswind effect and minimum effort.