Research issues in biological inspired sensors for flying robots

Biological inspired robotics is an area experiencing an increasing research and development. In spite of all the recent engineering advances, robots still lack capabilities with respect to agility, adaptability, intelligent sensing, fault-tolerance, stealth, and utilization of in-situ resources for power when compared to biological organisms. The general premise of bio-inspired engineering is to distill the principles incorporated in successful, nature-tested mechanisms of selected features and functional behaviors that can be captured through biomechatronic designs and minimalist operation principles from nature success strategies. Based on these concepts, robotics researchers are interested in gaining an understanding of the sensory aspects that would be required to mimic nature design with engineering solutions. In this paper are analysed developments in this area and the research aspects that have to be further studied are discussed.N/

biomimetic sensor suite for flight control of a micromechanical flying insect: design and experimental results, in

Four types of biomimetic sensors have been designed and simulated for flight control of a robotic flying insect. The ocelli use four photodiodes to detect changes in light intensity in the surrounding. The halteres use piezo-actuated vibrating structures to sense the Coriolis forces to detect angular velocities. The optic flow sensors consist of linear arrays of elementary motion detectors to register optic flows. The MEMS compass uses three metal loops to detect changes in the magnetic field. Despite simplicity and novelty, the preliminary tests on these devices showed promising performances for using such biomimetic sensors on a robotic flying insect.

Attitude and Position Control of a Flapping Micro Aerial Vehicle

International audienc

Research issues in biological inspired flying robots

Biological inspired locomotion robotics is an area reveal-ing an increasing research and development. In spite of all the recent engineering advances, robots lack capabilities with respect to agility, adaptability, intelligent sensing, fault-tolerance, stealth, and utilization of in-situ power resources compared to some of the simplest biological organisms. The general premise of bio-inspired engineer-ing is to distill the principles incorporated in successful, nature-tested mechanisms, capturing the biomechatronic designs and minimalist operation principles from nature’s success strategies. Based on these concepts, several robots that adopt the same locomotion principles as animals, like legs for walking, fins for swimming, segmented body for creeping and peristaltic movements for worm like loco-motion, were developed in the last years. Recently, flap-ping wings robots are also stating to make their debut but there are several problems that need to be solved before they may fly autonomously. This paper analyses the ma-jor developments in this area and the directions towards future research.N/

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

FREQUENCY DOMAIN CHARACTERIZATION OF OPTIC FLOW AND VISION-BASED OCELLAR SENSING FOR ROTATIONAL MOTION

The structure of an animal’s eye is determined by the tasks it must perform. While vertebrates rely on their two eyes for all visual functions, insects have evolved a wide range of specialized visual organs to support behaviors such as prey capture, predator evasion, mate pursuit, flight stabilization, and navigation. Compound eyes and ocelli constitute the vision forming and sensing mechanisms of some flying insects. They provide signals useful for flight stabilization and navigation. In contrast to the well-studied compound eye, the ocelli, seen as the second visual system, sense fast luminance changes and allows for fast visual processing. Using a luminance-based sensor that mimics the insect ocelli and a camera-based motion detection system, a frequency-domain characterization of an ocellar sensor and optic flow (due to rotational motion) are analyzed. Inspired by the insect neurons that make use of signals from both vision sensing mechanisms, advantages, disadvantages and complementary properties of ocellar and optic flow estimates are discussed

Design optimization of small-scale unmanned air vehicles

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Quadcopter)With Real-Time Object Tracking

In the previous decade, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have turned into a subject of enthusiasm for some exploration associations. UAVs are discovering applications in different regions going from military applications to activity reconnaissance. This thesis is an overview of a particular sort of UAV called quadrotor or quadcopter. Scientists are often picking quadrotors for their exploration because a quadrotor can precisely and productively perform assignments that future of high hazard for a human pilot to perform. This thesis includes the dynamic models of a quadrotor and model-autonomous control systems. It also explains the complete description of developed quadcopter used for surveillance purpose with real-time object detection. In the present time, the focus has moved to outlining autonomous quadrotors. Ultimately, it examines the potential applications of quadrotors and their part in multi-operators frameworks. The Unmanned aerial vehicle (Quadcopter) has been developed that could be used for search and surveillance purpose. This project comprised of both hardware and software part. The hardware part comprised of the development of unmanned aerial vehicle (Quadcopter). The main components that were used in this project are KK2 flight controller board, outrunner brushless DC motor, Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC), GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, video transmitter and receiver, HD (High Definition) camera, RC (Radio Controlled) transmitter and receiver. Software part comprised of real-time object detection and tracking algorithm for detecting and tracking of human beings that were done with the help of Matlab software. After achieving the stable flight, the camera installed on the quadcopter would transmit a video signal to the receiver placed on the ground station. Video signal from the receiver would then be transferred to Matlab software for further processing or for tracking human beings using real-time object detection and tracking algorith

A multimodal micro air vehicle for autonomous flight in near-earth environments

Reconnaissance, surveillance, and search-and-rescue missions in near-Earth environments such as caves, forests, and urban areas pose many new challenges to command and control (C2) teams. Of great significance is how to acquire situational awareness when access to the scene is blocked by enemy fire, rubble, or other occlusions. Small bird-sized aerial robots are expendable and can fly over obstacles and through small openings to assist in the acquisition and distribution of intelligence. However, limited flying space and densely populated obstacle fields requires a vehicle that is capable of hovering, but also maneuverable. A secondary flight mode was incorporated into a fixed-wing aircraft to preserve its maneuverability while adding the capability of hovering. An inertial measurement sensor and onboard flight control system were interfaced and used to transition the hybrid prototype from cruise to hover flight and sustain a hover autonomously. Furthermore, the hovering flight mode can be used to maneuver the aircraft through small openings such as doorways. An ultrasonic and infrared sensor suite was designed to follow exterior building walls until an ingress route was detected. Reactive control was then used to traverse the doorway and gather reconnaissance. Entering a dangerous environment to gather intelligence autonomously will provide an invaluable resource to any C2 team. The holistic approach of platform development, sensor suite design, and control serves as the philosophy of this work.Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering -- Drexel University, 200