A Comparison between Frame-based and Event-based Cameras for Flapping-Wing Robot Perception

Perception systems for ornithopters face severe challenges. The harsh vibrations and abrupt movements caused during flapping are prone to produce motion blur and strong lighting condition changes. Their strict restrictions in weight, size, and energy consumption also limit the type and number of sensors to mount onboard. Lightweight traditional cameras have become a standard off-the-shelf solution in many flapping-wing designs. However, bioinspired event cameras are a promising solution for ornithopter perception due to their microsecond temporal resolution, high dynamic range, and low power consumption. This paper presents an experimental comparison between frame-based and an event-based camera. Both technologies are analyzed considering the particular flapping-wing robot specifications and also experimentally analyzing the performance of well-known vision algorithms with data recorded onboard a flapping-wing robot. Our results suggest event cameras as the most suitable sensors for ornithopters. Nevertheless, they also evidence the open challenges for event-based vision on board flapping-wing robots

Braking and Body Angles Control of an Insect-Computer Hybrid Robot by Electrical Stimulation of Beetle Flight Muscle in Free Flight

While engineers put lots of effort, resources, and time in building insect scale micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) that fly like insects, insects themselves are the real masters of flight. What if we would use living insect as platform for MAV instead? Here, we reported a flight control via electrical stimulation of a flight muscle of an insect-computer hybrid robot, which is the interface of a mountable wireless backpack controller and a living beetle. The beetle uses indirect flight muscles to drive wing flapping and three major direct flight muscles (basalar, subalar and third axilliary (3Ax) muscles) to control the kinematics of the wings for flight maneuver. While turning control was already achieved by stimulating basalar and 3Ax muscles, electrical stimulation of subalar muscles resulted in braking and elevation control in flight. We also demonstrated around 20 degrees of contralateral yaw and roll by stimulating individual subalar muscle. Stimulating both subalar muscles lead to an increase of 20 degrees in pitch and decelerate the flight by 1.5 m/s2 as well as an induce an elevation of 2 m/s2.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, supplemental video: https://youtu.be/P9dxsSf14LY . Cyborg and Bionic Systems 202

Insect inspired visual motion sensing and flying robots

International audienceFlying insects excellently master visual motion sensing techniques. They use dedicated motion processing circuits at a low energy and computational costs. Thanks to observations obtained on insect visual guidance, we developed visual motion sensors and bio-inspired autopilots dedicated to flying robots. Optic flow-based visuomotor control systems have been implemented on an increasingly large number of sighted autonomous robots. In this chapter, we present how we designed and constructed local motion sensors and how we implemented bio-inspired visual guidance scheme on-board several micro-aerial vehicles. An hyperacurate sensor in which retinal micro-scanning movements are performed via a small piezo-bender actuator was mounted onto a miniature aerial robot. The OSCAR II robot is able to track a moving target accurately by exploiting the microscan-ning movement imposed to its eye's retina. We also present two interdependent control schemes driving the eye in robot angular position and the robot's body angular position with respect to a visual target but without any knowledge of the robot's orientation in the global frame. This "steering-by-gazing" control strategy, which is implemented on this lightweight (100 g) miniature sighted aerial robot, demonstrates the effectiveness of this biomimetic visual/inertial heading control strategy

꼬리날개 없는 날갯짓 초소형 비행체의 자세조절

학위논문 (박사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 기계항공공학부, 2020. 8. 김현진.최근 생체모방에 대한 관심이 커지면서 생명체의 구조, 외형, 움직임, 행동을 분석하여 그들의 장점을 로봇에 적용시켜 기존의 로봇이 해결할 수 없거나 특별한 임무를 좀 더 효과, 효율적으로 해결하려는 시도가 늘어나고 있다. 이러한 시도는 무인비행체 개발에도 적용되고 있으며 날갯짓 비행체가 이에 해당된다. 날개짓 비행체는 날개의 반복운동을 통해 발생하는 힘을 통해 비행하는 비행체로 일반적으로 꼬리날개의 유무에 따라 새를 모방한 비행체(미익형 비행체)와 곤충을 모방한 비행체(무미익형 비행체)로 구분할 수 있다. 무미익형 비행체의 경우 제자리 비행을 할 수 있고, 크기가 작고 무게가 가벼워 공기저항도 줄일 수 있으며, 날렵한 비행이 가능하다는 장점이 있지만, 수동 안정성을 확보하기 위한 제어면이 충분하지 않고 추력 생성과 동시에 3축으로의 제어 모멘트를 만들 수 있는 복잡한 매커니즘을 가지고 있다는 특징을 가지고 있다. 본 논문에서는 저자의 미익형 비행체의 연구개발 사례를 토대로 자율 비행을 할 수 있는 무미익형 비행체를 개발하기 위한 요소기술들과 초기 비행체 개발을 목표로 한다. 해당 목표를 달성하기 위해 저자는 시중에서 판매되고 있는 RC장난감을 활용해 30 gram 이하의 무게를 가지고 30cm3 이내의 크기를 가지는 무미익형 날갯짓 비행체를 개발을 진행하였다. 비행체 내부에는 구동기로 DC 모터와 서보모터가 존재하며, DC 모터는 날갯짓을 일으키는 기어 박스를 작동시켜 비행체의 무게를 지탱하기 위한 thrust를 생성하며 roll축 방향으로의 moment 생성에 관여하며, 서보모터는 날갯짓에서 발생하는 좌우 thrust의 방향을 조절하여 pitch 와 yaw 축으로의 모멘트를 생성하는데 사용된다. 비행체 내부에는 아두이노 보드 기반의 마이크로프로세서가 탑재되어 있어 비행체를 제어하기 위한 신호를 생성할 수 있으며 블루투스 통신 모듈을 가지고 있기 때문에 외부와 통신 역시 가능하다. 비행체의 자세를 제어하기 위해서는 구동기의 상호작용으로 인해 발생하는 힘의 물리량을 파악하는 것이 중요하다. 이를 위해 날갯짓 메커니즘에서 발생하는 힘을 측정하는 실험을 수행하였다. 측정실험을 통해 DC모터 입력 대비 thrust 크기, 서보모터 command 입력 대비 moment 크기 등의 관계를 파악하였다. 또한 날갯짓 비행체를 공중에 띄울 수 있는 충분한 크기의 thrust를 발생하는 것을 확인하였으며 자세 제어를 위한 모멘트 생성 역시 가능하다는 것을 확인하였다. 비행체의 자세를 제어하기 위해서는 3축 방향으로의 운동방정식을 유도하는 것이 필요하다. 이를 위해 roll, pitch, yaw 축 방향으로 비행체에서 발생하는 힘과 회전 운동과 관련한 운동방정식을 유도했으며 이를 통해 비행체의 자세를 안정화시킬 수 있도록 하는 PID 제어기 형태의 제어기를 설계하였다. 뿐만 아니라, 비행체의 궤적추종 제어를 위해 내부의 자세 제어기에 비행체의 위치를 토대로 계산되는 추가적인 외부 제어기를 설계하여 이중루프 제어기 형태를 적용시켜 시뮬레이션을 통해 비행체의 자세 제어와 궤적 추종 제어가 이루어짐을 확인하였다. 개발한 비행체와 앞서 설계한 제어기가 사용자의 의도에 맞는 성능을 내는지 확인하기 위해 자이로 실험장치를 제작하여 자세 제어 실험을 수행하였다. 해당 실험장치는 roll, pitch, yaw 축으로 회전이 가능하도록 제작하였으며 실험장치 자체의 무게를 줄이기 위해 MDF 소재를 사용하여 구조물를 만들었다. roll, pitch, yaw 3축이 각각 독립적으로 제어하는 것과 3축을 동시에 제어하는 2가지 상황을 고려하였으며 앞서 설계한 제어기가 해당 실험 장치 내부에서 사용자의 의도에 맞게 제어 성능을 보이는지 확인할 수 있었다. 궤적 추종제어를 위해서는 2가지 비행 상황을 설정하였다. 첫 번째 경우, 천장과 비행체 상단부에 실을 연결하여 2D 평면상에서 비행체가 주워진 궤적에 따라 움직이는지, 두 번째 경우, 비행체 상단부에 헬륨이 주입된 풍선을 연결시켜 3D 공간상에서 주워진 궤적을 따라 추종 비행하는지를 확인할 수 있는 상황이다. 두 가지 상황에서 모두 다양한 형태의 궤적을 비행체가 잘 추종하는지를 확인할 수 있었다. 끝으로, 외부 장치(실, 풍선)를 제거하여 공중에서 비행체가 제자리 비행을 할 수 있는지를 검증하는 실험을 진행하였으며, 15초가량 1m3 공간 내에서 제자리 비행이 이루어지는 것을 확인하였다.Flapping wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) that generate thrust and lift by flapping their wings are regarded as promising flight vehicles because of their advantages in terms of similar appearance and maneuverability to natural creatures. Reducing weight and air resistance, insect-inspired tailless FWMAVs are an attractive aerial vehicle rather than bird-inspired FWMAVs. However, they are challenging platforms to achieve autonomous flight because they have insufficient control surfaces to secure passive stability and a complicated wing mechanism for generating three-axis control moments simultaneously. In this thesis, as preliminary autonomous flight research, I present the study of an attitude regulation and trajectory tracking control of a tailless FWMAV developed. For these tasks, I develop my platform, which includes two DC motors for generating thrust to support its weight and servo motors for generating three-axis control moments to regulate its flight attitude. First, I conduct the force and moment measurement experiment to confirm the magnitude and direction of the lift and moment generated from the wing mechanism. From the measurement test, it is confirmed that the wing mechanism generates enough thrust to float the vehicle and control moments for attitude regulation. Through the dynamic equations in the three-axis direction of the vehicle, a controller for maintaining a stable attitude of the vehicle can be designed. To this end, a dynamic equation related to the rotational motion in the roll, pitch, and yaw axes is derived. Based on the derived dynamic equations, we design a proportional-integral-differential controller (PID) type controller to compensate for the attitude of the vehicle. Besides, we use a multi-loop control structure (inner-loop: attitude control, outer-loop: position control) to track various trajectories. Simulation results show that the designed controller is effective in regulating the platforms attitude and tracking a trajectory. To check whether the developed vehicle and the designed controller are operating effectively to regulate its attitude, I design a lightweight gyroscope apparatus using medium-density-fiberboard (MDF) material. The rig is capable of freely rotating in the roll, pitch, and yaw axes. I consider two situations in which each axis is controlled independently, and all axes are controlled simultaneously. In both cases, attitude regulation is properly performed. Two flight situations are considered for the trajectory tracking experiment. In the first case, a string connects between the ceiling and the top of the platform. In the second case, the helium-filled balloon is connected to the top of the vehicle. In both cases, the platform tracks various types of trajectories well in error by less than 10 cm. Finally, an experiment is conducted to check whether the tailless FWMAV could fly autonomously in place by removing external devices (string, balloon), and the tailless FWMAV flies within 1 m^3 space for about 15 seconds1.Introduction 1 1.1 Background & Motivation 1 1.2 Literature review 3 1.3 Thesis contribution 7 1.4 Thesis outline 8 2.Design of tailless FWMAV 13 2.1 Platform appearance 13 2.2 Flight control system 17 2.3 Principle of actuator mechanism 18 3.Force measurement experiment 28 3.1 Measurement setup 28 3.2 Measurement results 30 4.Dynamics & Controller design 37 4.1 Preliminary 37 4.2 Dynamics & Attitude control 39 4.2.1 Roll direction 41 4.2.2 Pitch direction 43 4.2.3 Yaw direction 45 4.2.4 PID control 47 4.3 Trajectory tracking control 48 5.Attitude regulation experiments 50 5.1 Design of gyroscope testbed 50 5.2 Experimental environment 52 5.3 Roll axis free 53 5.3.1 Simulation 54 5.3.2 Experiment 55 5.4 Pitch axis free 56 5.4.1 Simulation 57 5.4.2 Experiment 58 5.5 Yaw axis free 59 5.5.1 Simulation 59 5.5.2 Experiment 60 5.6 All axes free 60 5.6.1 Simulation 60 5.6.2 Experiment 61 5.7 Design of universal joint testbed & Experiment 64 6.Trajectory tracking 68 6.1 Simulation 68 6.2 Preliminary 69 6.3 Experiment: Tied-to-the-ceiling 70 6.4 Experiment: Hung-to-a-balloon 71 6.5 Summary 72 6.6 Hovering flight 73 7.Conclusion 83 A Appendix: Wing gearbox 85 A.1 4-bar linkage structure 85 B Appendix: Disturbance observer (DOB) 87 B.1 DOB controller 87 B.2 Simulation 89 B.2.1 Step input 89 B.2.2 Sinusoid input 91 B.3 Experiment 92 References 95Docto

Power-Scavenging MEMS Robots

This thesis includes the design, modeling, and testing of novel, power-scavenging, biologically inspired MEMS microrobots. Over one hundred 500-μm and 990-μm microrobots with two, four, and eight wings were designed, fabricated, characterized. These microrobots constitute the smallest documented attempt at powered flight. Each microrobot wing is comprised of downward-deflecting, laser-powered thermal actuators made of gold and polysilicon; the microrobots were fabricated in PolyMUMPs® (Polysilicon Multi-User MEMS Processes). Characterization results of the microrobots illustrate how wing-tip deflection can be maximized by optimizing the gold-topolysilicon ratio as well as the dimensions of the actuator-wings. From these results, an optimum actuator-wing configuration was identified. It also was determined that the actuator-wing configuration with maximum deflection and surface area yet minimum mass had the greatest lift-to-weight ratio. Powered testing results showed that the microrobots successfully scavenged power from a remote 660-nm laser. These microrobots also demonstrated rapid downward flapping, but none achieved flight. The results show that the microrobots were too heavy and lacked sufficient wing surface area. It was determined that a successfully flying microrobot can be achieved by adding a robust, light-weight material to the optimum actuator-wing configuration—similar to insect wings. The ultimate objective of the flying microrobot project is an autonomous, fully maneuverable flying microrobot that is capable of sensing and acting upon a target. Such a microrobot would be capable of precise lethality, accurate battle-damage assessment, and successful penetration of otherwise inaccessible targets

Aquatic escape for micro-aerial vehicles

As our world is experiencing climate changes, we are in need of better monitoring technologies. Most of our planet is covered with water and robots will need to move in aquatic environments. A mobile robotic platform that possesses efficient locomotion and is capable of operating in diverse scenarios would give us an advantage in data collection that can validate climate models, emergency relief and experimental biological research. This field of application is the driving vector of this robotics research which aims to understand, produce and demonstrate solutions of aerial-aquatic autonomous vehicles. However, small robots face major challenges in operating both in water and in air, as well as transition between those fluids, mainly due to the difference of density of the media. This thesis presents the developments of new aquatic locomotion strategies at small scales that further enlarge the operational domain of conventional platforms. This comprises flight, shallow water locomotion and the transition in-between. Their operating principles, manufacturing methods and control methods are discussed and evaluated in detail. I present multiple unique aerial-aquatic robots with various water escape mechanisms, spanning over different scales. The five robotic platforms showcased share similarities that are compared. The take-off methods are analysed carefully and the underlying physics principles put into light. While all presented research fulfils a similar locomotion objective - i.e aerial and aquatic motion - their relevance depends on the environmental conditions and supposed mission. As such, the performance of each vehicle is discussed and characterised in real, relevant conditions. A novel water-reactive fuel thruster is developed for impulsive take-off, allowing consecutive and multiple jump-gliding from the water surface in rough conditions. At a smaller scale, the escape of a milligram robotic bee is achieved. In addition, a new robot class is demonstrated, that employs the same wings for flying as for passive surface sailing. This unique capability allows the flexibility of flight to be combined with long-duration surface missions, enabling autonomous prolonged aquatic monitoring.Open Acces

DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A HUMMINGBIRD-SIZE FLAPPING WING MICRO AERIAL VEHICLE

Flying animals with flapping wings may best exemplify the astonishing ability of natural selection on design optimization. They evince extraordinary prowess to control their flight, while demonstrating rich repertoire of agile maneuvers. They remain surprisingly stable during hover and can make sharp turns in a split second. Characterized by high-frequency flapping wing motion, unsteady aerodynamics, and the ability to hover and perform fast maneuvers, insect-like flapping flight presents an extraordinary aerial locomotion strategy perfected at small size scales. Flapping Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (FWMAVs) hold great promise in bridging the performance gap between engineered flying vehicles and their natural counterparts. They are perfect candidates for potential applications such as fast response robots in search and rescue, environmental friendly agents in precision agriculture, surveillance and intelligence gathering MAVs, and miniature nodes in sensor networks

Closed-Loop Control of Constrained Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles

Micro air vehicles are vehicles with a maximum dimension of 15 cm or less, so they are ideal in confined spaces such as indoors, urban canyons, and caves. Considerable research has been invested in the areas of unsteady and low Reynolds number aerodynamics, as well as techniques to fabricate small scale prototypes. Control of these vehicles has been less studied, and most control techniques proposed have only been implemented within simulations without concern for power requirements, sensors and observers, or actual hardware demonstrations. In this work, power requirements while using a piezo-driven, resonant flapping wing control scheme, Bi-harmonic Amplitude and Bias Modulation, were studied. In addition, the power efficiency versus flapping frequency was studied and shown to be maximized while flapping at the piezo-driven system\u27s resonance. Then prototype hardware of varying designs was used to capture the impact of a specific component of the flapping wing micro air vehicle, the passive rotation joint. Finally, closed-loop control of different constrained configurations was demonstrated using the resonant flapping Bi-harmonic Amplitude and Bias Modulation scheme with the optimized hardware. This work is important in the development and understanding of eventual free-flight capable flapping wing micro air vehicle

Taking Inspiration from Flying Insects to Navigate inside Buildings

These days, flying insects are seen as genuinely agile micro air vehicles fitted with smart sensors and also parsimonious in their use of brain resources. They are able to visually navigate in unpredictable and GPS-denied environments. Understanding how such tiny animals work would help engineers to figure out different issues relating to drone miniaturization and navigation inside buildings. To turn a drone of ~1 kg into a robot, miniaturized conventional avionics can be employed; however, this results in a loss of their flight autonomy. On the other hand, to turn a drone of a mass between ~1 g (or less) and ~500 g into a robot requires an innovative approach taking inspiration from flying insects both with regard to their flapping wing propulsion system and their sensory system based mainly on motion vision in order to avoid obstacles in three dimensions or to navigate on the basis of visual cues. This chapter will provide a snapshot of the current state of the art in the field of bioinspired optic flow sensors and optic flow-based direct feedback loops applied to micro air vehicles flying inside buildings