Landing and swooping like a bird.. an American “drone” with unprecedented advantages
Amman Today
publish date 2021-12-02 16:44:34
A team of engineers from the prestigious American Stanford University have developed automatic clips that can be attached to drones to turn them into robotic birds capable of grabbing objects or resting on different surfaces.
These new capabilities could allow flying robots to conserve battery life, rather than having to stand still, for example during searches for survivors, or help biologists more easily sample in forests.
“We want to be able to land anywhere, so the development is exciting from an engineering and robotics point of view,” explained David Lentink, co-author of the article published in Science Robotics on this innovation Wednesday.
As is well known in the field of robotics, the project was inspired by animal behavior – in this case, the method of birds landing on tree branches and clinging to them – in order to overcome technical difficulties.
But imitating these birds, which millions of years of evolution have allowed them to cling to branches of various sizes or shapes that are sometimes covered with lichen or cause slippage due to rain, is no easy task.
To this end, the Stanford team used high-speed cameras to study how baby parrots land on perches of varying size and material; Any wood, foam, and sandpaper.
In addition, sensors are placed on the branches that record the force with which the birds land and take off again.
The scientists noted that while the landing motion was the same in each position, the parrots used their legs to adapt to the differences they encountered.
More specifically, birds wrap their claws around the site on which they perch, and use soft, folded pads to ensure good adhesion.
To give it the ability to withstand a small drone with four propellers, the scientists designed the clamps based on the model of the legs of a peregrine falcon.
The 3D-printed skeleton includes motors and fishing line for use as muscles and tendons.
It takes 20 milliseconds to attach the clamps, and then the accelerometer tells the robot that the landing is complete.
Finally, the algorithm allows the mechanical bird to maintain its balance on a tree branch.
The robot was able to grab objects that were thrown at it, such as tennis balls, and land in real conditions in the forests of the northwest United States.
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