Collaborative Research: Design, Flight Control, and Autonomous Navigation of Bioinspired Morphing Micro Aerial Vehicles for Operation in Confined Spaces

该项目将通过创造可以在极其狭窄的空间中运行的蝙蝠无人机，促进空中机器人科学的进步，并促进国家的繁荣和福利。对城市下水道中快速、连续的环境监测的需求不断增加。这些密闭空间占据了城市基础设施的很大一部分。然而，今天的传统机器人，包括地面和空中系统，无法在绝大多数下水道中运行。下水道网络呈现出一个名副其实的迷宫般的管道、腔室和公用设施孔，这对机器人运动控制和导航提出了巨大的挑战。因此，人类操作员仍然检查这些危险空间。除了给人类带来许多风险外，在这些环境中的载人操作成本高，速度慢。这项研究将有助于设计空中，蝙蝠启发的机器人，可以在下水道中运行，通过模仿蝙蝠空中运动原理在洞穴中。这项研究的成果将大大造福社会。特别是在大流行期间，使用这些蝙蝠启发的无人机对城市老化的下水道系统进行连续和自动化监测，可以在拯救人类生命方面发挥至关重要的作用。例如，SARS-CoV可以在废水中存在数天，2019年在下水道中的早期检测可能有助于加强应对当前大流行病的准备。该项目旨在培养新一代科学家、工程师和技术人员的跨学科技能，为未来的专业人士提供垂直整合的、以使用为灵感的体验式学习活动。与地面机器人相比，旋翼无人机是更好的城市基础设施检查和监控解决方案，因为它们具有可扩展性、廉价性、易于部署和快速移动性。然而，这些系统不能在狭窄的区域内飞行，例如横截面小的隧道，因为它们依赖于强大而连续的空气射流。到目前为止，这些无人机的受限空间应用仅包括在建筑物内部或非常宽敞的受限环境中飞行，这与空中机器人在下水道中的应用无法相提并论。这项研究将使无人机能够在下水道等狭窄空间内完成完全自主的飞行。该研究团队将（i）使用集成的机械智能和控制框架来设计具有动态多功能身体构造和显著计算复杂性的无人机，以防止产生强大的空气射流，（ii）设计集成的基于模型和数据驱动的飞行控制框架，不仅捕获模型的不确定性，还捕获由于在隧道中飞行而产生的环境空气动力学效应，以及（iii）开发一种新的导航框架，该框架依赖于从下水道示意图中提取的高级抽象指导，从而在未映射的环境中实现鲁棒导航。该项目得到跨部门机器人基础研究计划的支持，由工程局（ENG）和计算机与信息科学与工程局（CISE）共同管理和资助该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will promote the progress of science in aerial robotics and advance the national prosperity and welfare, by creating bat-inspired drones that can operate in extremely confined spaces. There is an increased demand for fast, continuous environmental surveillance in city sewers. These confined spaces occupy a large portion of a city's infrastructure. However, today's conventional robots, including ground and aerial systems, cannot operate in a vast majority of sewers. Sewer networks present a veritable maze of pipes, chambers, and utility holes that pose tremendous challenges for robot locomotion control and navigation. Therefore, human operators still inspect these dangerous spaces. In addition to carrying many risks for humans, manned operations in these environments are costly and slow. This grant’s research will contribute to the design of aerial, bat-inspired robots that can operate in sewers, by mimicking bat aerial locomotion principles in caves. The results from this research will greatly benefit the society. Especially during a pandemic, the continuous and automated monitoring of a city’s aging sewer systems using these bat-inspired drones can play a vital role in saving human lives. For instance, SARS-CoVs can be present in wastewater for several days, and its early detection in sewers in 2019 could have allowed for increased preparedness in combating the current pandemic. This project trains new generation scientists, engineers, and technologists with interdisciplinary skills, providing future professionals with vertically integrated, use-inspired experiential learning activities.Today's rotary-wing drones are better solutions for inspection and monitoring city infrastructure than ground robots because they are scalable, inexpensive, easy to deploy, and possess fast mobility. However, these systems cannot fly inside tight areas such as tunnels with small cross-sections because they rely on powerful and continuous air jets. So far, the confined space applications of these drones include only flying inside buildings or very spacious confined environments, which are not comparable to the application of aerial robots in sewers. This research will allow drones to complete fully autonomous flights inside tight spaces such as sewer galleries. The research team will (i) use an integrated mechanical intelligence and control framework to design drones with dynamically versatile body conformations and significant computational complexity to prevent creation of powerful air jets, (ii) design an integrated model-based and data-driven flight control framework that captures not only the model uncertainty but also the environmental aerodynamic effects that arise due to flight in tunnels, and (iii) develop a novel navigation framework that relies on high-level abstract guidance extracted from sewer schematic diagrams, enabling robust navigation in unmapped environments.This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.