NRI/Collaborative Research: Improving the Safety and Agility of Robotic Flight with Bat-Inspired Flexible-Winged Robots

蝙蝠飞行，也许是动物飞行中最先进、最有效的形式，长期以来一直是机器人学家和生物学家的灵感来源。这个国家机器人计划（NRI）合作研究奖支持旨在了解和再现蝙蝠飞行无与伦比的敏捷性和弹性的研究。蝙蝠的生物学研究（它们的结构、肌肉运动和飞行动力学）将推动机器人飞行数学模型的工程开发，并最终设计和实现一个30- 80厘米的蝙蝠样机器人原型。 机器人的物理飞行能力将通过感知和推理能力得到增强，旨在为施工现场活动提供支持，例如现场监控，检查和工作现场的一般监视，以提供图像数据，提高人类工人的态势感知能力。该研究涉及多个学科，包括生物学、空气动力学、机器人技术、控制系统工程和建筑工程。空中机器人的敏捷性和效率远不及动物飞行，特别是在复杂、受限的环境中。这并不奇怪，因为即使是最简单的有翼机器人也具有复杂的飞行动力学，这对建模，设计和控制构成了重大挑战。在蝙蝠启发的机器人的情况下，这些困难加剧了使用欠驱动机构驱动的翅膀构造的柔性膜。这个项目将联合收割机结合生物和工程研究来解决这些问题。对蝙蝠运动学和飞行的生物学研究将为机械设计提供基础。为了控制机器人，敏捷运动规划和飞行控制算法将采用从蝙蝠飞行动力学的生物学研究中获得的运动基元。相反，从生物研究中获得的模型将通过使用原型机器人的实验研究进行验证，从而实现降阶模型和控制算法的迭代改进。 最终，这些机器人将配备传感系统和规划算法，以促进建筑工地的定位、绘图、检查和监控。

Bat flight, perhaps the most advanced and efficient form of animal flight, has long been a source of inspiration for roboticists and biologists alike. This National Robotics Initiative (NRI) collaborative research award supports research aimed at understanding and reproducing the unparalleled agility and resilience of bat flight. Biological studies of bats (their structure, muscle movement, and flight dynamics) will drive the engineering development of mathematical models of robotic flight and the eventual design and implementation of a prototype 30-80cm bat-like robot. The physical flight capabilities of the robot will be augmented with perception and reasoning abilities, with the aim of providing support for construction site activities such as site monitoring, inspection, and general surveillance of the work site to provide image data to enhance situational awareness of human workers. The research involves several disciplines, including biology, aerodynamics, robotics, control systems engineering, and construction engineering.Aerial robots have nowhere near the agility and efficiency of animal flight, especially in complex, constrained environments. This is not surprising since even the simplest winged robots have complex flight dynamics that pose significant challenges for modeling, design, and control. In the case of bat-inspired robots, these difficulties are exacerbated by the use of under-actuated mechanisms driving wings constructed from flexible membranes. This project will combine biological and engineering research to address these problems. Biological research on the kinematics of bats and their flight will provide a basis for mechanical designs. To control the robot, agile motion planning and flight control algorithms will employ motion primitives that are derived from biological investigation of the dynamics of bat flight. Conversely, models obtained from biological studies will be validated by experimental investigations using the prototype robot, enabling iterative refinement of reduced-order models and control algorithms. Ultimately, the robots will be equipped with sensing systems and planning algorithms, to facilitate localization, mapping, inspection and surveillance at construction sites.