A Drone with Insect-Inspired Folding Wings

Flying robots are increasingly adopted in search and rescue missions because of their capability to quickly collect and stream information from remote and dangerous areas. To further enhance their use, we are investigating the development of a new class of drones, foldable sensorized hubs that can quickly take off from rescuers’ hands as soon as they are taken out of a pocket or a backpack. With this aim, this paper presents the development of a foldable wing inspired by insects. The wing can be packaged for transportation or deployed for flight in half a second with a simple action from the user. The wing is manufactured as a thick origami structure with a foldable multi-layer material. The prototype of the foldable wing is experimentally characterized and validated in flight on a mini-drone

Insect-Inspired Mechanical Resilience for Multicopters

The ease of use and versatility of drones has contributed to their deployment in several fields, from entertainment to search and rescue. However, drones remain vulnerable to collisions due to pilot mistakes or various system failures. This paper presents a bioinspired strategy for the design of quadcopters resilient to collisions. Abstracting the biomechanical strategy of collision resilient insects’ wings, the quadcopter has a dual-stiffness frame that rigidly withstands aerodynamic loads within the flight envelope, but can soften and fold during a collision to avoid damage. The dual-stiffness frame works in synergy with specific energy absorbing materials that protect the sensitive components of the drone hosted in the central case. The proposed approach is compared to other state-of- the art collision-tolerance strategies and is validated in a 50g quadcopter that can withstand high speed collisions

Wing Design and Analysis for Micro Air Vehicle Development

Natural flight was always a source of inspiration to the human being, and with this, humans learned from observing it, even trying to reproduce multiple times what they saw. So new challenges emerged, and as new improvements with the evolution of technology, biomimetic gained new applicability, and great interest among the aeronautical scientific research community. The main objective of the present dissertation is to evaluate experimentally the influence of the shape, and structure in the wing, on their behavior and performance. To accomplish that goal, eight wings were designed (with two different methods), and afterward built, and tested at different airflow speeds (from 0 m/s up to 4 m/s) to compare their results as a function of their frequency, amplitude, average power, and their associated dimensionless parameters. After analyzing the results, it was seen that the amplitude ranges were between 0,12 m and 0,27 m, frequency between 4 Hz and 15 Hz, average power between 0,7 W and 1,8 W, Strouhal and Reynolds numbers have lower and upper limits of 0,15 to 2,2 and from 4,2×103 up to 2,8×104 , respectively. Also, it is important to mention that the designed wings produced less power per flapping cycle with the increase of the airflow velocity.O voo natural sempre funcionou como uma fonte de inspiração para o ser humano, e com isto o ser humano aprendeu com a natureza e por várias vezes tentou reproduzir aquilo que observava. Assim novos desafios apareceram, tal como novas soluções com o desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias, sendo que a área da biomimética foi uma das áreas que ganhou espaço de aplicabilidade e interesse no seio da investigação na comunidade aeronáutica. O objetivo principal da presente dissertação é a avaliação experimental da influência da forma e estrutura da asa no seu desempenho e comportamento aerodinâmico. De modo a atingir tal objetivo, oito asas foram projetadas (recorrendo a dois métodos diferentes) e posteriormente construídas e testadas a diferentes velocidades de escoamento (0 m/s até 4 m/s) de modo a comparar os resultados com valores de frequência, amplitude, potência média e os seus associados parâmetros adimensionais correspondentes. Após analisar os resultados, foi observado que o intervalo de amplitude se encontrava entre os 0,12 m e 0,27 m, a frequência entre os 4 Hz e os 15 Hz, a potência média entre os 0,7 W e os 1,8 W, e os números de Strouhal e Reynolds com os seus limites inferiores e superiores de 0,15 a 2,2 e 4,2×103 a 2,8×104 , respetivamente. É de salientar que as asas projetadas consumiram menos potência por ciclo de batimento com o aumento da velocidade de escoamento, podendo indicar um aumento de desempenho propulsivo

A Pocket Sized Foldable Quadcopter for Situational Awareness and Reconnaissance

Flying robots are rapidly becoming an essential tool in search and rescue missions because they can rapidly gather information from inaccessible or unsafe locations, thus increasing safety and rapidity of interventions. With this aim, we present a pocket sized foldable quadcopter equipped with a camera. The drone is a portable and rugged “flying-eye” that aims to extend or move the field of view of the rescuer for situational awareness and safe reconnaissance. The quadcopter can be packaged for transportation by folding its arms and it self-deploys in a glimpse before usage. Its compliant foldable arms make it rugged, reducing the risk of failure after collisions. The drone is remotely operated and it can stream sound, thermal and visual images in real time to rescuers. The prototype of the foldable quadcopter is experimentally characterized and assessed in preliminary field tests

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones

We are witnessing the advent of a new era of robots — drones — that can autonomously fly in natural and man-made environments. These robots, often associated with defence applications, could have a major impact on civilian tasks, including transportation, communication, agriculture, disaster mitigation and environment preservation. Autonomous flight in confined spaces presents great scientific and technical challenges owing to the energetic cost of staying airborne and to the perceptual intelligence required to negotiate complex environments. We identify scientific and technological advances that are expected to translate, within appropriate regulatory frameworks, into pervasive use of autonomous drones for civilian applications

Can scalable design of wings for flapping wing micro air vehicle be inspired by natural flyers?

Lift production is constantly a great challenge for flapping wing micro air vehicles (MAVs). Designing a workable wing, therefore, plays an essential role. Dimensional analysis is an effective and valuable tool in studying the biomechanics of flyers. In this paper, geometric similarity study is firstly presented. Then, the pw−AR ratio is defined and employed in wing performance estimation before the lumped parameter is induced and utilized in wing design. Comprehensive scaling laws on relation of wing performances for natural flyers are next investigated and developed via statistical analysis before being utilized to examine the wing design. Through geometric similarity study and statistical analysis, the results show that the aspect ratio and lumped parameter are independent on mass, and the lumped parameter is inversely proportional to the aspect ratio. The lumped parameters and aspect ratio of flapping wing MAVs correspond to the range of wing performances of natural flyers. Also, the wing performances of existing flapping wing MAVs are examined and follow the scaling laws. Last, the manufactured wings of the flapping wing MAVs are summarized. Our results will, therefore, provide a simple but powerful guideline for biologists and engineers who study the morphology of natural flyers and design flapping wing MAVs

Integration of Polyimide Flexible PCB Wings in Northeastern Aerobat

The principal aim of this Master's thesis is to propel the optimization of the membrane wing structure of the Northeastern Aerobat through origami techniques and enhancing its capacity for secure hovering within confined spaces. Bio-inspired drones offer distinctive capabilities that pave the way for innovative applications, encompassing wildlife monitoring, precision agriculture, search and rescue operations, as well as the augmentation of residential safety. The evolved noise-reduction mechanisms of birds and insects prove advantageous for drones utilized in tasks like surveillance and wildlife observation, ensuring operation devoid of disturbances. Traditional flying drones equipped with rotary or fixed wings encounter notable constraints when navigating narrow pathways. While rotary and fixed-wing systems are conventionally harnessed for surveillance and reconnaissance, the integration of onboard sensor suites within micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) has garnered interest in vigilantly monitoring hazardous scenarios in residential settings. Notwithstanding the agility and commendable fault tolerance exhibited by systems such as quadrotors in demanding conditions, their inflexible body structures impede collision tolerance, necessitating operational spaces free of collisions. Recent years have witnessed an upsurge in integrating soft and pliable materials into the design of such systems; however, the pursuit of aerodynamic efficiency curtails the utilization of excessively flexible materials for rotor blades or propellers. This thesis introduces a design that integrates polyimide flexible PCBs into the wings of the Aerobat and employs guard design incorporating feedback-driven stabilizers, enabling stable hovering flights within Northeastern's Robotics-Inspired Study and Experimentation (RISE) cage.Comment: 42 pages,20 figure

Development of a F.W.M.A.V. with livestreaming capabilities

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