ABSTRACT
This Chapter presents mobile robots that have been specifically developed to assess bio-inspired flight control strategies in real-world conditions. These include a miniature wheeled robot for preliminary tests, an indoor airship, and two ultra-light fixed-wing airplanes. In spite of the fundamental differences regarding their body shapes, actuators and dynamics, the four robotic platforms use several of the same electronic components, such as sensors and processors, in order to ease the transfer of software, processing schemes and control strategies from one to the other. Obviously, these robots do not attempt to reproduce the bio-mechanical principles of insect flight. However, the perceptive modalities present in flying insects are taken into account in the selection of sensors. After presenting the platforms, we will also briefly describe the software tools used to interface with the robots and to simulate them. This Chapter is concluded with an overview of the test arenas and their respective characteristics.
