An Active Uprighting Mechanism for Flying Robots

Klaptocz, Adam; Daler, Ludovic; Briod, Adrien; Zufferey, Jean-Christophe; Floreano, Dario

doi:10.1109/tro.2012.2201309

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(14 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, some impacts can affect the roll and pitch axes of flying platforms, which may cause a fall to the ground because the propulsion system generates accelerations toward undesired directions and may not be able to generate lift. This problem led to the design of protective structures able to withstand falls from a few meters (Klaptocz, Briod, Daler, Zufferey, and Floreano, ) as well as uprighting mechanisms, for example passive (Dees and Yan, ; Klaptocz, Boutinard‐Rouelle, Briod, Zufferey, and Floreano, ; Spletzer, Fischer, and Martinez, ) or active (Klaptocz, Daler, Briod, Zufferey, and Floreano, ). Autonomous flights through a narrow corridor or in a dark room were even demonstrated by such a collision‐robust platform (Klaptocz, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Collision‐resilient Flying Robot

Briod

Kornatowski

Zufferey³

et al. 2013

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Flying robots that can locomote efficiently in GPS-denied cluttered environments have many applications, such as in search and rescue scenarios. However, dealing with the high amount of obstacles inherent to such environments is a major challenge for flying vehicles. Conventional flying platforms cannot afford to collide with obstacles, as the disturbance from the impact may provoke a crash to the ground, especially when friction forces generate torques affecting the attitude of the platform. We propose a concept of resilient flying robots capable of colliding into obstacles without compromising their flight stability. Such platforms present great advantages over existing robots as they are capable of robust flight in cluttered environments without the need for complex sense and avoid strategies or 3D mapping of the environment. We propose a design comprising an inner frame equipped with conventional propulsion and stabilization systems enclosed in a protective cage that can rotate passively thanks to a 3-axis gimbal system, which reduces the impact of friction forces on the attitude of the inner frame. After addressing important design considerations thanks to a collision model and validation experiments, we present a proof-of-concept platform, named GimBall, capable of flying in various cluttered environments. Field experiments demonstrate the robot's ability to fly fully autonomously through a forest while experiencing multiple collisions.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Collision‐resilient Flying Robot

Briod

Kornatowski

Zufferey³

et al. 2013

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…10 Figure 11. Characteristic error for all measurements and filters for a single test at -5 degree ground angle.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, passive righting strategies combining a low center of mass with an appropriately egg-shaped chassis enables righting on flat surfaces 8 . Other robots utilize an active mechanism for reorienting the robot by pushing, either using an already available appendage 9 or by equipping the robot with a special mechanism specifically to enable self-righting 10 . At least one robot is even capable of performing a sequence of dynamic maneuvers, progressively storing and releasing an increasing amount of energy to finally overcome a potential energy barrier and achieve the proper orientation 11 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous self-righting using recursive Bayesian estimation to determine unknown ground angles

Collins

Kessens

2014

SPIE Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As robots are deployed to dynamic, uncertain environments, their ability to discern key aspects of their environment and recover from errors becomes paramount. In particular, tip-over events can potentially end or substantially disrupt mission performance and jeopardize asset recovery. To facilitate recovery from tip-over events (i.e. self-righting), the robot should be able to discern the ground angle on which it lies even when it is not in its preferred upright orientation. In this paper, we present a methodology for determining unknown ground angles using recursive Bayesian estimation. First, we briefly review our previous framework for autonomous self-righting, which we use to generate conformation space maps correlating stable robot configurations and orientations on various ground angles. Using these maps, we compare sensor orientation to predicted orientation for the robot configuration on all mapped ground angles. We then compute the best fit ground angle and assign it a confidence level based on filters such as predicted stability margin and measured rate of orientation change. We compare ground angle prediction error as a function of time using a variety of methods, and show a sensitivity analysis comparing accuracy as a function of the discretization of the ground angle dimension of the conformation space map. Finally, we demonstrate a physical robot's ability to self-right on unknown ground using this methodology.

show abstract

“…The protective structure design method above is applied to the protection of a small flying robot similar to the one previously published [8], [9]. The core of the platform is defined by a coaxial motor with 10 cm-diameter rotors.…”

Section: Proof-of-conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Euler spring collision protection for flying robots

Klaptocz¹,

Briod

Daler

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-This paper addresses the problem of adequately protecting flying robots from damage resulting from collisions that may occur when exploring constrained and cluttered environments. A method for designing protective structures to meet the specific constraints of flying systems is presented and applied to the protection of a small coaxial hovering platform. Protective structures in the form of Euler springs in a tetrahedral configuration are designed and optimised to elastically absorb the energy of an impact while simultaneously minimizing the forces acting on the robot's stiff inner frame. These protective structures are integrated into a 282 g hovering platform and shown to consistently withstand dozens of collisions undamaged.

show abstract

An Active Uprighting Mechanism for Flying Robots

Cited by 17 publications

References 11 publications

A Collision‐resilient Flying Robot

A Collision‐resilient Flying Robot

Autonomous self-righting using recursive Bayesian estimation to determine unknown ground angles

Euler spring collision protection for flying robots

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About