Aerospace Engineering and Science
Fundamental aerodynamics at low Reynolds numbers
a) High-performance aerodynamic airfoil design (https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/1.C032553)
b) Airfoil wake interaction
c) Laminar separation bubbles (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4913500)
Bio-inspired aerodynamics
a) Unsteady high-lift generation mechanisms based on leading-edge vortices, wake capture, and clap-and-fling in flapping wing flights (https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.008649; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-008-0210-x; https://doi.org/10.1299/jbse.1.234)
b) Measurement and improvement of flight efficiency of flapping flights due to wing flexibilities (https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2011.428; https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2009-1270; https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2010-554; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3481786)
c) Flight dynamics and control in flapping flights (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.11.022; https://doi.org/10.1299/jbse.4.105)
d) Owl-and fiber-inspired controls in flow fields and aerodynamic noise generation (https://doi.org/10.2322/tjsass.63.8)
d) Scaling analysis including phylogenetic in animal flights (https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.061932)
e) Design and development of aerial robots applied for information gathering and aerial explorations
Palm size and motor-driven flapping wing aerodynamic-control-robotic design
Robo-hummingbird Shinshu (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-36174-5)
Robo-beetle Shinshu
basic design and attitude control under gusty condition (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42235-023-00426-x)
with nonlinear controller for pitch altitude (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-025-00658-z)
Robo-butterfly Shinshu (https://sensors.myu-group.co.jp/article.php?ss=4343 )
Application for Mars aerial exploration
Data-driven approach for Bioinspired flapping wing vehicles design for Mars aerial exploration (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.12.037)
Bioinspired flapping wing hovering flight solutions on Mars via wing scaling (https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/aac876)
[Project finished]
Marsbee project, NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program (https://www.nasa.gov/general/marsbee-swarm-of-flapping-wing-flyers-for-enhanced-mars-exploration/)
PI Aono has contributed the project as the international CO-PI
Website: https://marsbee.uah.edu/home
Final report: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190002496/downloads/20190002496.pdf
Aerial manipulation and drone flight
a) Coordination of drones and flapping-wing aerial robots
b) Aerodynamics of drones in gusty conditions (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jfst/17/4/17_2022jfst0013/_article/-char/ja/)
Visualizations and quantifications of fields and attribution map
a) Low and/or reduced-order model and feature extraction, machine learning and neural network
b) Feature extraction using sparse convolutional auto-encoder (SCAE) (https://pubs.aip.org/aip/adv/article/11/10/105211/661167)
c) Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) analysis (https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ince/incecp/2021/00000263/00000003/art00086)
d) Application of explainable AI (XAI) for fluid dynamic problems (https://www2.nagare.or.jp/nenkai2024/, https://www2.nagare.or.jp/cfd/cfd38/)
e) Time-dependent pressure visualization methods
Aeroacoustic simulations and measurements
a) Flapping wing robotic experiment (https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article/140/4_Supplement/3421/713841/Effects-of-wing-flexibility-on-sound) and simulations (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022460X18307685)
b) Rotating fans (https://www.hpci-office.jp/annex/resrep/?p=1856; https://www.hpci-office.jp/annex/resrep/?p=2085)
c) Shocklet (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.7.084605)
Improvement in Design of Fluid Machinery and Transportation
Plasma actuator-based flow control simulations and experiments
Basic aspects:
a) Plasma actuator (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/mej/2/4/2_15-00233/_article/-char/ja/, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0894177717301450)
Application and performance demonstrations:
a) Airfoil (https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/1.J055727)
b) Bluff body (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1873-7005/ab5a33/meta, https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/4/872)
c) Small wind turbine model blade (https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/5/1218)