Nowadays, there are few unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of flying,
walking and grasping. A drone with all these functionalities can significantly
improve its performance in complex tasks such as monitoring and exploring
different types of terrain, and rescue operations. This paper presents
MorphoArms, a novel system that consists of a morphogenetic chassis and a hand
gesture recognition teleoperation system. The mechanics, electronics, control
architecture, and walking behavior of the morphogenetic chassis are described.
This robot is capable of walking and grasping objects using four robotic limbs.
Robotic limbs with four degrees-of-freedom are used as pedipulators when
walking and as manipulators when performing actions in the environment. The
robot control system is implemented using teleoperation, where commands are
given by hand gestures. A motion capture system is used to track the user's
hands and to recognize their gestures. The method of controlling the robot was
experimentally tested in a study involving 10 users. The evaluation included
three questionnaires (NASA TLX, SUS, and UEQ). The results showed that the
proposed system was more user-friendly than 56% of the systems, and it was
rated above average in terms of attractiveness, stimulation, and novelty.Comment: IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering
(CASE 2023), Cordis, New Zeland, 26-30 August, 2023, in prin