A 79.7g Manipulator Prototype for E-Flap Robot: A Plucking-Leaf Application

The manipulation capabilities of flapping-wing flying robots (FWFRs) is a problem barely studied. This is a direct consequence of the load-carrying capacity limitation of the flapping-wing robots. Ornithopters will improve the existent multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since they could perf...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Nekoo, Saeed Rafee, Feliu-Talegon, Daniel, Acosta Rodríguez, José Ángel, Ollero Baturone, Aníbal
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/138502
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/138502
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3184110
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Flapping-wing robot
Lightweight manipulator
Aerial manipulation
Aerial robot
Leaf plucking
Descripción
Sumario:The manipulation capabilities of flapping-wing flying robots (FWFRs) is a problem barely studied. This is a direct consequence of the load-carrying capacity limitation of the flapping-wing robots. Ornithopters will improve the existent multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since they could perform longer missions and offer a safe interaction in proximity to humans. This technology also opens the possibility to perch in some trees and perform tasks such as obtaining samples from nature, enabling biologists to collect samples in remote places, or assisting people in rescue missions by carrying medicines or first-aid kits. This paper presents a very lightweight manipulator (79.7g) prototype to be mounted on an ornithopter. The distribution of the mass on the flapping-wing robot is sensitive and an extra lumped mass far from the center-of-mass (CoM) of the robot deteriorates the flight stability. A configuration was proposed to avoid changing the CoM. Flight experiments show that adding the arm to the robot only moved the CoM 6mm and the performance of the flight with the manipulator has been satisfactory. Plucking leaf is chosen as an application to the designed system and several experimental tests confirmed successful sampling of leaves by the prototype.