Collision-Resilient Insect-scale Soft Aerial Robots for Collective Flights in Cluttered Environments

这笔赠款将支持毫米级到厘米级软体空中机器人的研究，这些机器人能够在杂乱的环境中集体飞行。与可以在自然环境中导航并执行授粉等复杂任务的飞行昆虫不同，大多数现有的扑翼微型空中机器人很容易受到碰撞，并且仅限于在开放空间中飞行。该奖项支持昆虫级机器人碰撞动力学的基础研究、快速碰撞传感方法和碰撞恢复飞行控制器的设计，以及新型空中微型机器人功能的创建，包括群体飞行和栖息在花朵等顺从或移动物体上的能力。这项研究将通过实现潜在的新应用（例如垂直农业中的辅助授粉以及高度混乱和难以进入的空间的检查）来提供经济和社会效益。此外，这项工作中开发的类肌肉软执行器可能会在其他类型的移动机器人、可穿戴触觉设备和微流体系统中找到应用。该项目对研究生和本科生的教育和培训具有更广泛的影响。这些仿生机器人将用于 STEM 教育推广，包括针对代表性不足的少数族裔社区。该项目还将支持教育多媒体材料的开发和高中生的暑期实习。该项目的目标是实现与飞行昆虫相当的碰撞弹性，并进一步实现亚克级扑翼微型飞行器的新功能。其中包括群体飞行、探索杂乱的自然环境和授粉。这项工作结合了分析和实验方法，重点关注以下三个方向：1）制定动态模型并设计实验来测量亚克级飞行机器人的碰撞影响； (2)大幅减少碰撞检测时间并设计前馈自反恢复控制器； (3) 展示机器人与柔顺和移动障碍物的稳健交互。这项研究的结果将带来以前的空中机器人前所未见的新颖的飞行演示。新机器人将能够在墙壁、天花板和花朵和叶子等柔顺物体附近飞行。多个机器人将在杂乱的空间中集体飞行，同时展示碰撞容忍度。该项目还将验证用于空中机器人的类肌肉弹性软执行器的优势。 该项目得到了机器人学跨部门基础研究计划的支持，该计划由工程理事会 (ENG) 和计算机与信息科学与工程理事会 (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智力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 grant will support research on millimeter-scale to centimeter-scale soft aerial robots capable of collective flight in cluttered environments. Unlike flying insects that can navigate in natural environments and perform complex tasks such as pollination, most existing flapping-wing micro aerial robots are fragile to collisions and are limited to flying in open spaces. This award supports the fundamental study of the collision dynamics of insect-scale robots, the design of fast collision-sensing methods and collision-recovery flight controllers, and the creation of new aerial microrobot capabilities, including swarm flight and the ability to perch on compliant or moving objects such as flowers. This research will provide economic and societal benefits by enabling potential new applications such as assisted pollination in vertical farming and inspection of highly cluttered and inaccessible spaces. In addition, the muscle-like soft actuators developed in this work may find applications in other types of mobile robots, in wearable haptic devices, and in microfluidic systems. This project has broader impacts in the education and training of graduate and undergraduate students. The bio-inspired robots will be used for STEM education outreach, including to underrepresented minority communities. This project will also support the development of educational multimedia materials and summer internships for high-school students. The goal of this project is to achieve collision resilience comparable to flying insects, and to further enable new capabilities for sub-gram flapping-wing micro-aerial-vehicles. These include swarm flight, exploration of cluttered natural environments, and pollination. This work combines analytical and experimental approaches and focuses on the following three directions: 1) formulate dynamic models and design experiments to measure collision impacts on sub-gram aerial robots; (2) substantially reduce collision detection time and design a feedforward reflexive recovery controller; and (3) demonstrate robust robot interactions with compliant and moving obstacles. The outcome of this study will result in novel flight demonstrations unseen in previous aerial robots. The new robot will be able to fly near walls, ceilings, and compliant objects such as flowers and leaves. Multiple robots will fly collectively in a cluttered space while demonstrating collision tolerance. The project will also validate the advantages of muscle-like resilient soft actuators for aerial robots. 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.