Robotic <i>Elytra:</i> Insect-Inspired Protective Wings for Resilient and Multi-Modal Drones

Vourtsis, Charalampos; Stewart, William J.; Floreano, Dario

doi:10.1109/lra.2021.3123378

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…These correspond to both symmetric and asymmetric wing morphing configurations for wing sweep angles of 0°-90°with increments of 30°. Similar to, [20,21] the drone was attached to a Stäubli robotic arm that was placed in an open-jet WindShape wind tunnel. [22] The robot was programmed to drive the robot through a commanded angle of attack.…”

Section: Aerodynamic Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind Defiant Morphing Drones

Vourtsis

Rochel

Müller

et al. 2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Intense winds are a challenge for vertical take‐off and landing drones with wings. In particular, in the hovering regime, wings are sensitive to wind currents that can be detrimental to their operational and energetic performances. Tail‐sitters are particularly prone to those wind currents because their wings are perpendicular to the incoming wind during hovering. This wind generates a large amount of drag and can displace and destabilize the vehicle, possibly leading to catastrophic failures. Herein, our morphing strategy demonstrates in a custom‐built 1.8 kg tail‐sitter with morphing wings that can actively resist winds and leverage them to increase its aerodynamic efficiency. It is shown that adaptive wing morphing during hovering in adverse wind conditions can reduce normalized energy consumption up to 85%, increase attitude and positional stability, and leverage wind energy to increase its yaw angular rate up to 200% while decreasing motor saturation levels.

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Section: Aerodynamic Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind Defiant Morphing Drones

Vourtsis

Rochel

Müller

et al. 2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Emphasizing both compliance and the ability to re-orient in case of a crash and fall on the ground, the works in [20,21] present tensegrity-based soft collision-tolerant flying robots. Departing from multirotor and broadly rotorcraft designs, the contributions in [22,23] present collision-tolerant fixed-wing designs including bioinspired shape-morphing for higher protection when not flying. Considering flapping-wing designs and miniaturized systems, a set of relevant collision-tolerant systems are presented in [24,25].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

RMF-Owl: A Collision-Tolerant Flying Robot for Autonomous Subterranean Exploration

Petris¹,

Nguyen²,

Dharmadhikari³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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This work presents the design, hardware realization, autonomous exploration and object detection capabilities of RMF-Owl, a new collision-tolerant aerial robot tailored for resilient autonomous subterranean exploration. The system is custom built for underground exploration with focus on collision tolerance, resilient autonomy with robust localization and mapping, alongside high-performance exploration path planning in confined, obstacle-filled and topologically complex underground environments. Moreover, RMF-Owl offers the ability to search, detect and locate objects of interest which can be particularly useful in search and rescue missions. A series of results from field experiments are presented in order to demonstrate the system's ability to autonomously explore challenging unknown underground environments.

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Multimodal Locomotion: Next Generation Aerial–Terrestrial Mobile Robotics

Ramirez,

Hamaza

2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Mobile robots have revolutionized the public and private sectors for transportation, exploration, and search and rescue. Efficient energy consumption and robust environmental interaction needed for complex tasks can be achieved in aerial–terrestrial robots by combining advantages of each locomotion mode. This review surveys over two decades of development in multimodal robots that move on the ground and in air. Multimodality can be achieved by leveraging three main design approaches: adding morphological features, adapting forms for locomotion transitions, and integrating multiple vehicle platforms. Each classification is thoroughly examined and synthesized, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The authors delved into the intricacies of these approaches and explored the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in pursuit of the next generation of mobile robots. This review aims to advance future deployment of multimodal robots in the real world for challenging operations in dangerous, unstructured, contact‐prone, cluttered and subterranean environments.

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Robotic Elytra: Insect-Inspired Protective Wings for Resilient and Multi-Modal Drones

Cited by 6 publications

References 26 publications

Wind Defiant Morphing Drones

Wind Defiant Morphing Drones

RMF-Owl: A Collision-Tolerant Flying Robot for Autonomous Subterranean Exploration

Multimodal Locomotion: Next Generation Aerial–Terrestrial Mobile Robotics

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