An interdisciplinary team of engineers and roboticists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have designed and built a gliding robot which it is achieve aerial and then vertical propulsion by using its wings to perch vertically. The group’s undertaking as published in the journal of Communications Engineering was the creation of a drone modelled on animals especially bats. Possibilities of landing this drone on vertical poles and tree branches are not out of the question. drones
Modern flying drones have proved to be efficient in various aspects of life including movie production, surveillance, surveying, and delivering goods. Nevertheless, a weakness they possess is inability to make a descent to anything apart from a flat surface that is parallel to the ground. The study team has further designed a technique through which some of those drones can land on such structures as tubes, poles, or even branches of a tree.
Perching strategy and architecture of the PercHug platform. Credit: Communications Engineering (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s44172-024-00241-0
Earlier observations have revealed that bats have the possibility to maneuver in a way which allows them to cling to an upright pole or a tree or some other cylinder like articles using their wings as hooks. The researchers also noted that to perform these conspicuous actions, one is forced to fly very close to the object at the point where the bat flips from horizontal flight to a vertical flight. In response to this, they came up with as well as physically built a robot they called PercHug.
The team’s drone has the capacity to self fly, crash land (in a controlled manner) into the target and after that lock and embrace its wings and claws around the target firmly.
To build the device the researchers used foldable wings, thee upturned snout with an asymmetric shape, a latching and unlatching mechanism, hooks, the bistable trigger, and a stronger tail.
In the tests the drone safely flies into six trees and attached itself with large hooks and small grappling hooks, with or without the extra nose piece. They noted that good strategies were flying smoothly towards the target as if tossed by hand; touching the surface, making corrections as they did so; tucking in their wings, clamping the appendages onto that surface and staying there.
Toward this end, the research team noticed that to become precise in placing the drone to make the flying machine land on the vertical target, the drone throwers require practice. This they concluded suggested that improvements in the ability to acquire the targets required modifications in target scale, angular view, and approach rates.
References:
- Journal information: Communications Engineering
- Giving drones wrap-and-grip…..
