  This work briefly covers our efforts to stabilize the flight dynamics of
Northeastern's tailless bat-inspired micro aerial vehicle, Aerobat. Flapping
robots are not new. A plethora of examples is mainly dominated by insect-style
design paradigms that are passively stable. However, Aerobat, in addition for
being tailless, possesses morphing wings that add to the inherent complexity of
flight control. The robot can dynamically adjust its wing platform
configurations during gait cycles, increasing its efficiency and agility. We
employ a guard design with manifold small thrusters to stabilize Aerobat's
position and orientation in hovering, a flapping system in tandem with a
multi-rotor. For flight control purposes, we take an approach based on assuming
the guard cannot observe Aerobat's states. Then, we propose an observer to
estimate the unknown states of the guard which are then used for closed-loop
hovering control of the Guard-Aerobat platform.
