Jump-flying: a Bioinspired Hybrid Locomotion Strategy for Small Mobile Robots

小型无人机（UAV）在执行测绘、采矿、农业、建筑、环境管理和灾害响应等短期任务方面变得越来越有用。然而，目前的技术限制了飞行耐力，并且若干使命场景需要更长的操作时间。在地面或水体上的频繁着陆有可能通过允许再充电而有效地延长使命持续时间。虽然重复着陆和起飞提供了几个额外的好处，但大多数小型无人机在设计时没有这种功能，因为增加的设计约束大大损害了巡航性能（例如，飞行时间、范围、速度）。对自然的观察为设计新的解决方案提供了关键的见解，以减少这些长期存在的起飞限制。事实上，在小尺度上，跳跃是自然界中首选的起飞方法，各种大小和飞行能力的鸟类和昆虫都使用跳跃来过渡到飞行，无论是从陆地还是从水中。这个研究计划调查跳跃作为过渡到飞行，我们称之为“跳跃飞行”。这种混合运动模式有可能允许小型无人机重复着陆和起飞，而不会对推进系统施加重大限制。作者的探索性工作导致了“跳跃滑翔”无人机的发展，它利用了被动可枢转的机翼。这种无人机是第一个证明有效起飞和空中轨迹远长于同等弹道跳跃的无人机。该提案中概述的研究旨在利用最近在跳跃滑翔方面的突破来开发动力跳跃飞行。可以预见，这项研究将导致三个创新的跳跃飞行策略：频繁的高跳跃，其次是短滑翔，几个小跳跃，其次是一个长的飞行阶段，和强大的多方向跳跃，其次是高度敏捷的飞行。为了评估每种方法的适用条件和适用程度，本研究将调查以下问题：（1）在低飞行速度下螺旋桨的起动动力学，（2）具有显著起飞约束、瞬态空气动力学和地面效应的短距离飞行，（3）共享飞行和跳跃致动器以减少附加质量的可能性，以及（4）从水面跳跃。当与经典的飞机多学科优化技术相结合时，通过本研究获得的详细知识将导致对跳跃飞行和针对各种任务优化的原型的全面理解。最后，这些原型的巡航性能和起飞能力将与现有的无人机和模型飞机进行比较。预计从长远来看，跳跃飞行将导致一种实用且非常节能的运动模式，能够在地面和空中操作之间交替。通过充电功能，跳跃飞行有效地将小型无人机的使命持续时间从几分钟增加到几天，同时保持飞行性能。开发的跳跃飞行器将使一系列需要长使命的新应用成为可能。例如，可以在加拿大北方的许多湖泊上部署一组跳跃飞行器，在森林火灾调查和船上太阳能电池充电之间交替进行。其他应用包括可重新定位的传感器阵列，采样和返回任务，有毒物质泄漏的跟踪和监视。这个为期五年的项目将在机器人，航空，生物启发设计，动力学，控制和制造领域培养六名研究生。

Small Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly useful in performing short missions for mapping, mining, agriculture, construction, environmental management and disaster response. However, current technology limits flight endurance, and several mission scenarios require longer operations. Frequent landings, on ground or water bodies, have the potential to effectively extend the mission duration by allowing for recharge. Although repeated landings and takeoffs provide several additional benefits, most small UAVs are designed without this functionnality since the added design constraints significantly compromise cruise performance (e.g., flight time, range, speed). Observation of nature provides key insight to engineer new solutions to reduce these long-standing takeoff limitations. Indeed, at small scales, jumping is the preferred takeoff method in nature, and birds and insects of all sizes and flight abilities use jumping to transition to flight, either from land or from water. This research program investigates jumping as a transition to flight, which we term "jumpflying". This hybrid locomotion mode has the potential to allow small UAVs to repeatedly land and takeoff without imposing significant constraints on the propulsion system. Exploratory work by the author led to the development of a "jumpgliding" UAV, which exploits a passively pivotable wing. This UAV is the first to demonstrate efficient takeoffs and airborne trajectories substantially longer than an equivalent ballistic jumper. The research outlined in this proposal aims to leverage this recent breakthrough in jumpgliding to develop powered jumpflying. It is foreseen that this research will lead to three innovative jumpflying strategies: frequent high jumps followed by short glides, few small jumps followed by a long flight phase, and powerful multidirectional jumps followed by highly agile flights. To evaluate the conditions under which, and to what extent, each of these is appropriate, this research will investigate questions pertaining to : (1) startup dynamics of the propeller at low flight speeds, (2) short flights with significant takeoff constraints, transient aerodynamics and ground effects, (3) the possibility of sharing flight and jumping actuators to reduce added mass and (4) jumping from a water surface. When combined with classical airplane multidisciplinary optimization techniques, the detailed knowledge gained through this research will lead to a comprehensive understanding of jumpflying and prototypes optimized for various missions. Finally, cruise performance and takeoff abilities of theses prototypes will be compared against existing UAVs and model airplanes. It is expected that in the long term jumpflying will lead to a practical and extremely energy-efficient locomotion mode capable of alternating between ground and air operations. With recharge capabilities, jumpflying effectively increases the mission duration of small UAVs from minutes to days, while maintaining flight performance. The jumpfliers developed will enable a range of new applications that require long mission durations. For example, a team of jumpfliers could be deployed on many of the Northern Canadian lakes, alternating between surveying for forest fires and charging onboard solar batteries. Other applications include relocatable sensor arrays, sample and return missions, tracking of toxic spills, and surveillance. This five-year project will train six graduate students in the areas of robotics, aeronautics, bio-inspired design, dynamics, control, and fabrication.