Why fly blind? Event-based visual guidance for ornithopter robot flight

Eguíluz, A. Gómez; Tapia, R.; Maldonado, F. J.; Acosta, José Ángel; Dios, J.R. Martínez-de; Ollero, A.

doi:10.1109/iros51168.2021.9636315

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The perception part including the hardware and computational power needed to perform onboard reliable perception, including an event camera has been addressed by [36]. E-Flap prototype has a NanoPi companion computer directly plugged into the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) with the microcontroller and a WiFi module, used to receive flight instruction from an external PC when flying.…”

Section: E-flap Ornithopter: Features and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 79.7g Manipulator Prototype for E-Flap Robot: A Plucking-Leaf Application

et al. 2022

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The manipulation capabilities of flapping-wing flying robots (FWFRs) is a problem barely studied. This is a direct consequence of the load-carrying capacity limitation of the flapping-wing robots. Ornithopters will improve the existent multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since they could perform longer missions and offer a safe interaction in proximity to humans. This technology also opens the possibility to perch in some trees and perform tasks such as obtaining samples from nature, enabling biologists to collect samples in remote places, or assisting people in rescue missions by carrying medicines or first-aid kits. This paper presents a very lightweight manipulator (79.7g) prototype to be mounted on an ornithopter. The distribution of the mass on the flapping-wing robot is sensitive and an extra lumped mass far from the center-of-mass (CoM) of the robot deteriorates the flight stability. A configuration was proposed to avoid changing the CoM. Flight experiments show that adding the arm to the robot only moved the CoM 6mm and the performance of the flight with the manipulator has been satisfactory. Plucking leaf is chosen as an application to the designed system and several experimental tests confirmed successful sampling of leaves by the prototype.

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Section: E-flap Ornithopter: Features and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 79.7g Manipulator Prototype for E-Flap Robot: A Plucking-Leaf Application

et al. 2022

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“…Flapping wing UAVs are a very active line of research due to its great potential for application in natural or near-human environments, thanks to their safety and low environmental impact (visual and noise). The bioinspired operation of these platforms, as it is the case of perching, requires a high level of automation, sensors and soft devices onboard, for which a large payload capacity is needed [1], [2]. On the other hand, birds modify the shape of their wings to maximize lift either in low-speed flight or when carrying an extra weight, inspiring researchers to design and analyze new morphing systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal Elastic Wing for Flapping-Wing Robots Through Passive Morphing

Ruiz

Acosta

Ollero

2023

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Flapping wing robots show promise as platforms for safe and efficient flight in near-human operations, thanks to their ability to agile maneuver or perch at a low Reynolds number. The growing trend in the automatization of these robots has to go hand in hand with an increase in the payload capacity. This work provides a new passive morphing wing prototype to increase the payload of this type of UAV. The prototype is based on a biased elastic joint and the holistic research also includes the modelling, simulation and optimization scheme, thus allowing to adapt the prototype for any flapping wing robot. This model has been validated through flight experiments on the available platform, and it has also been demonstrated that the morphing prototype can increase the lift of the robot under study by up to 16% in real flight and 10% of estimated consumption reduction.

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“…A part of the recent development in flapping-wing systems focused on closed-loop position control. The precise control is a necessary step of various applications for FWFRs such as perching on a branch [1], perching to a surface [2,3], visionbased monitoring systems [4][5][6][7][8], long-endurance flights [9,10], manipulation [11,12], etc. The system in question is under-actuated and the control inputs could be the frequency of the flapping, and the motion of the tails.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Proportional Closed-loop Control for Equivalent Vertical Dynamics of Flapping-Wing Flying Robot

Nekoo

Ollero

2023

2023 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS)

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The closed-loop position control of a flappingwing flying robot (FWFR) is a challenging task. A complete sixdegree-of-freedom (DoF) modeling and control design is preferable though that imposes complexity on the procedure and analysis of the oscillations in the trajectory. Another approach could be studying independent state variables of the system and designing a controller for them. This will provide the possibility of a better understanding of the dynamic, comparing to experimental data, then use this information for moving forward to complete 6-DoF modeling. In this work, a simple linear proportional closed-loop controller is proposed and analyzed for an equivalent dynamic model of the flapping-wing flying robot. The equivalent dynamic modeling considers the flapping motion as a base excitation that disturbs the system in oscillatory behavior. The frequency of the oscillation and data of the motion was obtained from previous experimental results and used in the modeling. The designed controller performed the regulation task easily and regulated the system to a series of set-point control successfully. The motivation for the selection of a proportional control is to keep the design as simple as possible to analyze the excitation and behavior of the flapping more precisely. A discussion on the transient and steady-state flight and the role of control design on them have been presented in this work.

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Why fly blind? Event-based visual guidance for ornithopter robot flight

Cited by 13 publications

References 27 publications

A 79.7g Manipulator Prototype for E-Flap Robot: A Plucking-Leaf Application

A 79.7g Manipulator Prototype for E-Flap Robot: A Plucking-Leaf Application

Optimal Elastic Wing for Flapping-Wing Robots Through Passive Morphing

A Proportional Closed-loop Control for Equivalent Vertical Dynamics of Flapping-Wing Flying Robot

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