CAREER: Insect-scale Flapping-Wing Micro Aerial Robots Capable of Self-powered Hover and Agile Maneuvering

这项学院早期职业发展(Career)奖将为昆虫规模的飞行机器人创造新的能力，即重量不到5克，长度不到5厘米的飞行机器人。这些机器人具有为社会提供独特利益的潜力，但它们的发展因重大工程挑战而放缓。该项目的目标是演示灵活的机动和精确的悬停，仅使用机载动力就可以飞行长达10秒。这些能力将使昆虫规模的飞行机器人走上未来重要应用的道路，例如协助农作物授粉，或对无法到达的地区进行远程检查。这些机器人的一些特征的灵感来自于它们的生物模拟，例如驱动它们翅膀的柔软的肌肉状致动器。其他重要的功能，如在精确位置悬停，由于大小、重量和功率限制，必须与自然策略背道而驰。例如，当机器人达到其期望的方向时，它通过使用翅膀像陀螺一样旋转来抵抗诸如阵风之类的干扰。而且，悬停机器人不会携带沉重且耗电的高速摄像头和图像处理系统，而是将依赖附近同伴机器人的低频更新来纠正其飞行。这项研究还得到了教育和推广活动的补充，包括在波士顿和纽约著名的科学博物馆展出，通过麻省理工学院的暑期研究项目为代表性不足的高中生和本科生举办的项目，以及在国际机器人会议上组织的研讨会。该项目将开发能够展示昆虫般的敏捷动作和被动稳定的无绳飞行的软驱动微型空中机器人。我们的目标是通过利用介电弹性体致动器的独特特性和昆虫规模的机器人的动力学来实现变革性的飞行能力。具体地说，该项目将侧重于以下三个方向：(I)展示快速(1.5m/S)飞行和杂技动作，如快速倾斜转弯和翻筋斗；(Ii)利用被动稳定性和实施低频(5赫兹)视觉跟踪来演示悬停飞行，而不需要最先进的红外室内跟踪系统；(Iii)结合紧凑的电力电子和电池，在2.3g软空中机器人中实现10秒的无绳飞行。实现这些飞行能力将代表着开发完全自主的昆虫规模的空中机器人的长期努力中的一个重要里程碑。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will create new capabilities for insect-scale flying robots, that is, flying robots that weigh less than five grams and are less than five centimeters in length. These robots have the potential to provide unique benefits to society, but their development has been slowed by major engineering challenges. The goal of this project is to demonstrate both agile maneuvers and precise hover, for flight durations of up to ten seconds using only on-board power. These capabilities will set insect-scale flying robots on the path to important future applications, such as assisting in the pollination of crops, or conducting remote inspections of inaccessible areas. Some features of these robots are inspired by their biological analogs, such as the soft, muscle-like actuators that drive their wings. Other important functions, such as hovering at a precise location, must diverge from natural strategies due to size, weight, and power restrictions. For example, when the robot attains its desired orientation it resists disturbances such as wind gusts by using its wings to spin like a top. And, rather than carry a heavy and power-hungry high-speed camera and image processing system, the hovering robot will rely on low-frequency updates from nearby companion robots to correct its flight. The research is complemented by educational and outreach activities including exhibits at distinguished science museums in Boston and New York, programs for underrepresented high school and undergraduate students hosted through MIT’s summer research programs, and workshops organized at international robotics conferences.This project will develop soft-actuated micro-aerial-robots capable of demonstrating insect-like agile maneuvers and passively stable untethered flight. We aim to enable transformative flight capabilities through leveraging the unique properties of dielectric elastomer actuators and the dynamics of insect-scale robots. Specifically, the project will focus on the following three directions: (i) demonstrate fast (1.5 m/s) flight and acrobatic maneuvers such as rapid banked turns and somersaults; (ii) leverage passive stability and implement low frequency (5 Hz) vision-based tracking to demonstrate hovering flight without requiring the state-of-the-art infrared indoor tracking system; and (iii) incorporate compact power electronics and a battery to achieve a 10-second untethered flight in a 2.3 g soft aerial robot. Achieving these flight capabilities will represent a major milestone in the long-term effort of developing fully autonomous insect-scale aerial robots.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.