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sensors on board, and be able to detect the extent of the contamination and the type of

biological agent which was released before any humans have arrived at the scene.

 The recent concern for terrorism being planned in urban environments such as

small apartments leads to specific situations where MAVs could be useful. Current

technology cannot keep track and observe these small suspected areas. A MAV would

be useful in this situation because it could fly up to windows or even indoors and send

live video and audio of the suspect activities.

 In order to accomplish the evolving missions for which MAVs can be used,

their designs have to be considered accordingly. For most military missions, the

requirements typically demand that these vehicles be very small and highly agile.

They are constructed of very light materials, such as carbon fiber airframes and

flexible membrane sheeting for wings. However, this vehicle design does not allow for

conventional control surfaces due to the complexity of implementing hinges along the

flexible membrane wings.

 The lack of conventional control surfaces makes these vehicles difficult to fly.

Several benefits can be achieved by the use of additional control effectors. The

implementation of wing morphing as an additional control effector is considered to

increase controllability. Simple techniques are considered to study the benefits of using

morphing as compared to the current control effectors which are used on MAVs.

 This thesis will consider morphing as a control effector for a pair of micro air

vehicles with different dimensions. The vehicles shown in Figure 1-1 with a 24 in

wingspan and a 12 in wingspan will be used to demonstrate morphing for control.

These vehicles will be referred to as MAVs, though their wings are larger than the

definition implies, due to the similarities in design and construction.

 The MAV is an ideal platform for morphing because the power required is very

small due to the flexibility of the wings, and there are several benefits including

increased controllability.