Robots that can take off like birds could eliminate the need for runways for small fixed-wing drones.
Birds use the powerful explosive force generated by their legs to jump into the sky and begin flight, but it has proven difficult to build robots that can withstand the strong accelerations and forces exerted during this process.
Currently, Wong Dong Shin and his colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a robot named RAVEN, which has legs that function like a bird’s, allowing it to walk, jump, and jump into the air to begin flying. We created a flying propeller robot called
“Fixed-wing aircraft like airplanes always need runways and launchers, but that’s not available everywhere. You really need a designated infrastructure to take off the plane,” Singh said. Masu. “But when they see a bird, they just walk around, jump, take off. It’s very easy for them. They don’t need any outside help.”
A real bird’s legs have joints at the hip, knee, and ankle, but RAVEN’s legs have only two joints, the hip and knee, and are driven by a motor. Each leg also has a spring that can store and release elastic energy. By using fewer parts, Singh and his team were able to keep RAVEN’s weight to about 600 grams, the same as a crow.
In indoor tests, RAVEN was able to jump approximately 0.5 meters into the air at a speed of 2.4 meters per second. This is a similar speed to birds of the same size. At this point the propeller takes over. Because it can be launched upwards from anywhere, RAVEN could be useful for disaster relief missions where regular fixed-wing drones cannot take off or land, Singh said. But first, he says, the team needs to develop RAVEN’s ability to land safely.
“I’ve seen a lot of research on flying robots that land on perches, but not many focused on taking off with their feet,” says Rafael Zafry, also from EPFL. “I think the two disciplines of landing, or perching, and takeoff will be integrated into one platform that will allow robots to fly, detect branches, land, recover, and perform missions.” Take off. ”
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