DROD: A hybrid biomimetic undulatory and reciprocatory drill: Quantitative analysis and numerical study

Alkalla, Mohamed G.; Pang, Xavier; Pitcher, Craig; Gao, Yang

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.02.007

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Several prototypes exist that have been tested intensively in a wide range of substrates ranging from fine regolith simulants to icy substrates as the one shown in Figure 5C. Sakes et al (2020) developed a wood wasp inspired micro-drill prototype for minimal invasive surgery capable of achieving a stroke velocity of 4-8.77 mm/s and a transportation rate of up to 5.82 mg/ s. Still, a wood-wasp inspired drills for aerospace applications have yet to be deployed and tested within the space environment (Gao et al, 2006;Gouache et al, 2010;Pitcher et al, 2020;Alkalla et al, 2021).…”

Section: Planetary Exploration and Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetics for innovative and future-oriented space applications - A review

Banken

Oeffner²

2023

Front. Space Technol.

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Nature benefits from a progressive evolution over millions of years, always adapting and finding individual solutions for common problems. Hence, a pool of diverse and efficient solutions exists that may be transferable to technical systems. Biomimetics or bio-inspiration has been used as a design approach for decades, revolutionizing products and processes throughout various industries. Thus, multiple examples can also be found in the space sector, since many characteristics found in biological organisms are also essential for space systems like response-stimuli adaptability, robustness and lightweight construction, autonomy and intelligence, energy efficiency, and self-repair or healing capabilities. This review focuses on biomimetics within the field of aerospace engineering and summarizes existing bio-inspired concepts such as drilling tools (wood wasp ovipositor drilling), telescopes (lobster eye optics), or gasping features (gecko feet adhesion capabilities) that have already been conceptualized, partially tested, and applied within the space sector. A multitude of biological models are introduced and how they may be applicable within the space environment. In particular, this review highlights potential bio-inspired concepts for dealing with the harsh environment of space as well as challenges encountered during rocket launches, space system operations and space exploration activities. Moreover, it covers well-known and new biomimetic concepts for space debris removal and on-orbit operations such as space-based energy production, servicing and repair, and manufacture and assembly. Afterwards, a summary of the challenges associated with biomimetic design is presented to transparently show the constraints and obstacles of transferring biological concepts to technical systems, which need to be overcome to achieve a successful application of a biomimetic design approach. Overall, the review highlights the benefits of a biomimetic design approach and stresses the advantage of biomimetics for technological development as it oftentimes offers an efficient and functional solution that does not sacrifice a system’s reliability or robustness. Nevertheless, it also underlines the difficulties of the biomimetic design approach and offers some suggestions in how to approach this method.

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Section: Planetary Exploration and Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetics for innovative and future-oriented space applications - A review

Banken

Oeffner²

2023

Front. Space Technol.

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“…The main enhancements over the DRD include; having a compact and portable design for easily attaching with exploration vehicles, having easy-changeable cams and wedges with different inclination angles without modifying the entire design for obtaining various reciprocation and oscillation amplitudes, and having a sample compartment with extended lengths along the drill stem. The detailed design of DROD along with simulation trials for validating the concept of dual reciprocation and oscillation drilling motion have been performed in [23]. The simulation in that work involved implementing drilling into ES-3 with closest approximation to its size and shape (i.e.…”

Section: Drod's Concept and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, they can hide beneath the surface to avoid being hunted. The exceptional undulatory technique of the sand-fish lizard inspired many researchers to forge out innovative solution for the locomotion problem of rovers in harsh planetary terrains [22], and innovative solutions for drilling penetration efficiency as presented in the numerical study by Alkalla et al [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the fundamental target of this article is: how to achieve a new depth record of the DRD technique and encompassing a sampler to collect regolith for in-situ testing. The tool-regolith interaction and drill dynamics were extensively investigated by Alkalla et al [23] and represented the first step in testing this new drilling technique of simultaneous reciprocation and undulatory motion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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DROD: bio-robotic drill/sampler for planetary subterranean exploration: experiments and challenges

Alkalla,

Pitcher

2023

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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Key features for space exploration equipment, and in particular drills and sampling mechanisms, are low weight, small size, and energy efficiency. These characteristics are substantially required not only in reducing the spaceship flight cost, but also in extending the exploration time on the extraterrestrial bodies. This article experimentally investigates the feasibility of a novel drill bioinspired by wood-wasp and sand-fish lizard as an integrated robotic solution for rover exploration tasks. A new penetration depth of 820 mm in terms of reciprocation drilling technique has been achieved by the proposed dual reciprocation and oscillation drill (DROD), especially with the new enhancements such as miniature sample compartment and toothed stems. Additionally, a first sampling experiment with DROD has been performed and a sample amount of 20 g and size of 30 cm3 has been collected successfully. Finally, the article provides developments for integration of DROD with rovers for future exploration missions and potentials for horizontal drilling for subterranean applications.

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“…The authors investigated how the bit morphology affects drilling performances and proposed preliminary DEM simulations for analyzing multiple designs rapidly and provide information to experimental campaigns [37]. The authors later adopted DEM and multi-body dynamics (MBD) co-simulations to analyze different drilling methods and soil sampling, highlighting how penetration depth and contact forces depend on the tool-soil interactions [38], [39]. It is evident that numerical model-based analyses represent a key tool to evaluate, in combination with experimental campaigns, the performances of systems that operate in a certain environment and, therefore, to investigate their optimal design requirements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Methodology to Investigate the Design Requirements of Plant Root-Inspired Robots for Soil Exploration

Pirrone

Dottore

Sibille

et al. 2023

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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This paper proposes a methodology to investigate soil penetration requirements to extract specifications for designing robotic soil excavators and explorers. To this purpose, a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is proposed to simulate an intruder penetration and its interaction with the environment. In this study, the penetration process was analyzed as a function of the intruder diameter to median particle size ratio (Droot/D50), highlighting important differences for small and big ratios conditions (i.e., Droot/D50<<1 and Droot/D50>>1). In particular, the soil resistance force that autonomous penetration systems must overcome when moving into cohesionless granular soil was estimated based on the intruder size (diameter) and the median granularity (D50). This study estimates how the penetration requirements vary according to different penetration strategies. Specifically, a plant root-inspired axial movement emulating the growth from the tip adopted by plants is compared with a penetration obtained by pushing a system from the top. Our findings provide important guidelines about the design requirements (system size, penetration strategy, and actuation power) for artificial penetrating systems, like autonomous explorative robots, to improve their performances during underground exploration.

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DROD: A hybrid biomimetic undulatory and reciprocatory drill: Quantitative analysis and numerical study

Cited by 16 publications

References 27 publications

Biomimetics for innovative and future-oriented space applications - A review

Biomimetics for innovative and future-oriented space applications - A review

DROD: bio-robotic drill/sampler for planetary subterranean exploration: experiments and challenges

A Methodology to Investigate the Design Requirements of Plant Root-Inspired Robots for Soil Exploration

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