Thrust-Assisted Perching and Climbing for a Bioinspired UAV
We present a multi-modal robot that flies, perches and climbs on outdoor surfaces such as concrete or stucco walls. Although the combination of flying and climbing mechanisms in a single platform extracts a weight penalty, it also provides synergies. In p
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Abstract. We present a multi-modal robot that flies, perches and climbs on outdoor surfaces such as concrete or stucco walls. Although the combination of flying and climbing mechanisms in a single platform extracts a weight penalty, it also provides synergies. In particular, a small amount of aerodynamic thrust can substantially improve the reliability of perching and climbing, allowing the platform to maneuver on otherwise risky surfaces. The approach is inspired by thrust-assisted perching and climbing observed in various animals including flightless birds.
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Introduction
In the aftermath of an earthquake or other disaster, small unmanned air vehicles such as quadrotors are ideal for initial response. They are unaffected by debris on the ground and can fly rapidly to remote and cluttered sites. Unfortunately, they are typically hampered by a short mission life – often 20 min or fewer for platforms weighing less than 0.5 kg. However, if these vehicles can perch and crawl on vertical surfaces, they can extend their missions to hours while performing surveillance, inspection or communication functions. Once perched, they are also relatively unaffected by poor weather; when conditions improve, they can take off and return home or fly elsewhere. Not surprisingly, many small flying animals also perch frequently, resting and taking shelter between flights. Although multi-modal flying, perching and crawling operation confers advantages, it also extracts a penalty. For small air vehicles, where every gram counts, the mechanisms used for clinging and crawling can easily double the weight of the vehicle, with a corresponding deterioration in flying performance. Fortunately, there are also synergies to be realized by combining climbing and flying capabilities. These synergies are explored in SCAMP (Stanford Climbing and Aerial Maneuvering Platform). SCAMP is a small robot that combines a commercial Crazyflie 2.0TM quadrotor with insect- and bird-inspired perching and climbing mechanisms. It can fly outdoors and land on unprepared vertical surfaces such as concrete or stucco walls. Like various flying and gliding animals, it also uses aerodynamic effects to enhance perching and climbing.1 1
A video of SCAMP in operation is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=bAhLW1eq8eM.
c Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 N.F. Lepora et al. (Eds.): Living Machines 2016, LNAI 9793, pp. 288–296, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-42417-0 26
Thrust-Assisted Perching and Climbing for a Bioinspired UAV
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Assembly Foot Motion (Extend/Retract) Foot Motion (In/Out) foot with spines bow spring
T rod
tendon
z x
z y tail
x Fig. 1. (left) SCAMP climbing (inset: SCAMP in flight). (right) Climbing mechanism with two servo motors, one to extend/retract feet along the wall, and one to pull feet in/out from wall surface, attaching or detaching spines.
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Related Work
Steadily shrinking microprocessors, sensors and actuators have lead to an explosion in the popularity of micro air vehicles in general, and quadrotors in particular. Howev
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