Scutigera: Design, Modeling, and Experiments for an Artistic Multibody Airship Concept

Abstract

The exploration of new lands has always been a source ofmotivation for mankind. Despite the common idea that ourplanet is fully known, a huge number of inaccessible placesstill remains unvisited today, especially below the surface.Recent advances in robotics allow some of these locationsto be explored by unmanned vehicles. This paper presentsthe design of a 3-modules lighter-than-air vehicle specifi-cally conceived to autonomously explore inaccessible cavesand underground environments. The design is inspired froman arthropod,scutigera coleoptrata, a long-legged centipedecommonly found in our houses. Instead of crawling on wallslike its biological counterpart, the robotic scutigera hoversand flies in cave tunnels. The aim is to develop a flexi-ble semi-rigid, segmented airship that can withstand long,smooth explorations of caves while transmitting in real-timethe images and sounds that it captures. This paper presentsthe equations of motion for a single module, and experimen-tal results to identify the physical properties of the Scutigeramodules. For simulation and control, we develop the modelof the multibody system, based on the kinematics of the mod-ules and the dynamics of the vehicle derived using Kane–sequations. Our approach can be extended for an n-bodiessystem. A 3-segment motion is illustrated with simplified sce-narios in the horizontal plane using head actuation only. Fi-nally, a structural design of the modules is presented andsupported with a proof-of-concept prototype.