Flying insect inspired vision for autonomous aerial robot maneuvers in near-earth environments

Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation. Retrieved April 2006 from http://prism2.mem.drexel.edu/~paul/papers/greenOhBarrowsIcra2004.pdfNear-Earth environments are time consuming, labor intensive and possibly dangerous to safe guard. Accomplishing tasks like bomb detection, search-andrescue and reconnaissance with aerial robots could save resources. This paper describes the adoption of insect behavior and flight patterns to devolop a AtAV sensor suite. A prototype called CQAR: Closed Quarter Aerial Robot, which is capable of flying in and around buildings, through tunnels and in and out of caves will be used to validate the eficiency of such a method when equipped with optic flow microsensors

Playful sciencing and the early childhood classroom

The purpose of this project is to examine the power of play, guided discovery, and hands-on experiences in the early childhood classroom, specifically as it relates to early childhood science experience. This paper will also propose a science curriculum encompassing a hands-on, guided discovery, play-based approach

Radar, Insect Population Ecology, and Pest Management

Discussions included: (1) the potential role of radar in insect ecology studies and pest management; (2) the potential role of radar in correlating atmospheric phenomena with insect movement; (3) the present and future radar systems; (4) program objectives required to adapt radar to insect ecology studies and pest management; and (5) the specific action items to achieve the objectives

One Tone, Two Ears, Three Dimensions: An investigation of qualitative echolocation strategies in synthetic bats and real robots

Institute of Perception, Action and BehaviourThe aim of the work reported in this thesis is to investigate a methodology for studying perception by building and testing robotic models of animal sensory mechanisms. Much of Artificial Intelligence studies agent perception by exploring architectures for linking (often abstract) sensors and motors so as to give rise to particular behaviour. By contrast, this work proposes that perceptual investigations should begin with a characterisation of the underlying physical laws which govern the specific interaction of a sensor (or actuator) with its environment throughout the execution of a task. Moreover, it demonstrates that, through an understanding of task-physics, problems for which architectural solutions or explanations are often proposed may be solved more simply at the sensory interface - thereby minimising subsequent computation. This approach is applied to an investigation of the acoustical cues that may be exploited by several species of tone emitting insectivorous bats (species in the families Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae) which localise prey using systematic pinnae scanning movements. From consideration of aspects of the sound filtering performed by the external and inner ear or these bats, three target localisation mechanisms are hypothesised and tested aboard a 6 degree-of-freedom, binaural, robotic echolocation system.In the first case, it is supposed that echolocators with narrow-band call structures use pinna movement to alter the directional sensitivity of their perceptual systems in the same whay that broad-band emitting bats rely on pinnae morphology to alter acoustic directionality at different frequencies.Scanning receivers also create dynamic cues - in the form of frequency and amplitude modulations - which very systematically with target angle. The second hypothesis investigated involves the extraction of timing cues from amplitude modulated echo envelopes

Science for gifted children in grade four.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Locomotor system simulations and muscle modeling of the stick insect (Carausius morosus)

It is a matter of fact that even so called "primitive species" (like insects) readily outperform any human locomotive invention with respect to agility, adaptability and reliability - to name the least. The work at hand deals with two aspects that contribute to the pre-eminence of biological, terrestrial locomotor systems, namely motion control and muscle properties. In the first part of this work, a new, biologically well-founded approach for the control of articulated legs is presented. This controller, based on the detailed physiological knowledge of the stick insect's (Carausius morosus) leg control, redundantizes complex forward or backward kinematic calculations by dexterous employment of sensory feedback and muscle properties. This section shows that the collection of segmental coordination rules (which have been studied in the stick insect for several decades) is indeed able to generate periodic, robust middle leg stepping movements in a physical simulation of the animal. Furthermore, the controller is capable of handling stepping in the front and hind leg; although for hind leg stepping minor modifications were necessary. The second part of this work is about muscle modeling and it is divided into three chapters. Lynchpin of any motion is the muscle, and nowadays it is well-accepted that muscle properties are complex and highly variable. Hence, no trivial relationship between motor neuron activity and motion can be expected and typically, computer modeling is required to link the two. This part therefore first describes how a model of the stick insect's extensor tibiae muscle can be developed for individual muscles. The approach presented offers a way to measure and model all properties for the generation of a classical Hill-type model, in a single animal. Therefore it was necessary to reduce the number of measurements, stimulations and the overall time span of the experiment to a degree this muscle could take without severe loss in vitality. After this approach has been described, the next section deals with a possible application of individual muscle modeling. The variation of muscle model parameters is investigated for 10 different individuals. The question of parameter independence is addressed, and in fact it could be shown that there is co-variation between two different pairs of parameters. One correlation was found between two parameters modeling passive static force curve, the other between one parameter of the force-length and one of the force-activation curve. Both correlations suggest that the model can be reduced further. In the final section, isometric and isotonic simulations were performed with different model configurations. It is investigated how far averaging parameters of different animals would influence model performance. This is studied by comparing the error produced by four different model configurations, differing in their share of averaged parameters. Compared to a model entirely composed of averaged parameters, performance of the muscle specific model improves by approximately 40%

ポリマー微細加工によって作成される羽ばたき翼微小飛行体のデザインウィンドウ探索法による開発

The specific flight mechanisms of insects like hovering and maneuverability along with their tiny size nature grasp the attention of many researchers across the globe to utilize the phenomena for the development of biomimetic flapping wing air vehicles which can be used in the wide areas like hazardous environment exploration, rescue, agriculture, pipeline inspection, and earthquake or tsunami disaster management, etc where human access is difficult. Consequently, many researchers have developed flapping wing air vehicles ranging from macro scale to the nanoscale (the largest dimension should be less than or equal to 10 cm) i.e., flapping-wing nano air vehicles (FWNAVs). The research on insect-inspired FWNAVs indicates that FWNAVs generally consist of micro transmission for getting desired flapping motion, a pair of micro wings, an actuator for the power source, and a supporting frame to support the overall structure. Recently, FWNAVs up to a size of 30 mm have been developed based on the insect’s size. However, the evolution of insects indicates that the size of ultimate small insects is about 1 mm. The further miniaturization of current FWNAVs is difficult because of the large assembly of components and complicated mechanical transmission mechanism. Though, there are mainly two difficulties to successfully developing FWNAVs at the scale of mm-size. The first is the manufacturing difficulty because of the very small structure to realize the wing’s complicated motions. The second is the design difficulty because of multisystem and involvement of coupled Multiphysics like fluid-structure interaction (FSI) design. Along with these difficulties other difficulty includes enough lift to drag ratio for hover and thrust for forwarding flight motion due to fluid mechanics at low Reynolds no (Re < 3000). These difficulties can be overcome by developing FWNAVs based on a design window search methodology where a design solution can be obtained for the design problem satisfying all the design requirements. Further fabricating the FWNAVs using advanced engineering technologies such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies which seem to be suitable for mm-size prototypes. Computational analysis and design can be utilized for finding the design window search for FWNAVs. The finite element method (FEM) has been the standard choice as a numerical tool for performing the simulation of Multisystem, because of its capabilities to analyze the geometries of complex shapes, detailed analysis of coupled effect, boundary, and initial conditions. The purpose of this study is to develop 10 mm insect-inspired FWNAV using a 2.5-dimensional structure novel approach, iterative design window search methodology, and polymer micromachining. The proposed FWNAV consists of a micro transmission with a support frame, a micro wing, and a piezoelectric bimorph actuator. The novelty of this research includes, (1) the novel transmission mechanism using two parallel elastic hinges based on geometrically nonlinear bending deformation that produces a large rotational displacement from a small translational displacement, (2) the complete 2.5-D structure which can be fabricated using the polymer micromachining technique without any post-assembly (3) the novel design approach or iterative design window (DW) search method using the advanced computational analysis and design. The advantage of the proposed FWNAV over other FWNAVs includes the lowest energy loss due to no post assembly (friction loss is less), reducing total weight, ease in miniaturization, and enough performance without resonance mechanism. In order to develop the proposed FWNAV, firstly I have designed micro transmissions with a support frame and micro wing and later I have designed FWNAV which has been further miniaturized to design 10mm FWNAV using the iterative DW search method. I have also estimated fatigue life arising due to random cyclic stress, which is mostly ignored by the researchers. Computational flight performance of the proposed FWNAV has been evaluated using Multiphysics coupled analysis i.e., fluid-structure interaction analysis where governing equilibrium equation of motion of micro wing and surrounding airflow has been directly solved by finite element methods. The computational flight performance indicates that mean lift force is comparable to the weight of FWNAV which provides that the proposed FWNAV can lift off. The polymer micromachining has been demonstrated by fabricating the transmission which is a key and central component of FWNAV which indicates the feasibility of polymer micromachining for the development of 10 mm FWNAV. Thus, 10 mm flyable FWNAV can be developed which has enough fatigue life.九州工業大学博士学位論文 学位記番号：情工博甲第369号 学位授与年月日：令和4年9月26日1 General Introduction|2 Proposal of 2.5-dimensional one wing transmission for flapping-wing nano air vehicle|3 Iterative design window search for polymer micromachined flapping-wing nano air vehicle|4 Computational flight performance of flapping wing nano air vehicles using fluid-structure interaction analysis|5 Development of flapping-wing nano air vehicle|6 General Conclusion九州工業大学令和4年

Spinoff 1976: A Bicentennial Report

Today we educate the world via communications satellites. We prospect for oil with land-resource satellites. We keep the tundra frozen with spacecraft-derived heat pipes, making the Alaskan pipeline possible. Our damaged hearts are run by pacemakers, our ailments diagnosed by computer. Highways are grooved to prevent skidding. Bridges soon may be protected from corrosion. Better lubricants, more powerful solar cells, more efficiently designed railroad cars have been spun from space technology. Thousands of technical innovations are the payoff after 18 years in space. Examples of how our national investment in space research and technology pays off will be described here, first as social, political, and economic stimuli and then in the exploration of space for its own purposes. The research payoff continues with current cases of space spinoffs that affect your job, your health, your mobility, your home, your environment, and your future