I-Corps: Tethered Heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial and Ground System for Autonomous Targeted Distribution of Fluid Delivery

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力集中在智能机器人平台的开发上，该平台为向目标区域喷洒液体的耗时、复杂和昂贵的任务提供安全、持久、可靠和自主的解决方案，如精准农业、私人和公共安全、公用事业检查、搜索和救援、电信、交通监控、新闻采集和国防。这项技术提供了一种方法，可以自动将流体(即空气或液体)施加到指定的大空间上，或者自适应地精确定位需要特定目标的区域。该技术提供了1)长时间的运行时间和快速的数据处理，使用系绳和软管提供的不间断电力和数据传输，2)物理连接的部件(即空中机器人、软管和地面子系统)之间的智能协调，以及3)基于机器学习/AI的自主感知、决策、数据分析、自我定位、导航和控制能力。此外，该平台还为空中机器人的控制和电源系统故障提供了安全解决方案。这个i-Corps项目将是一个自主空中机器人系统，拖着一根软管连接到移动地面子系统，以提供自主、持久、坚固和精确的软管能力。该系统是应用刚体动力学理论、流体动力学理论、控制/估计理论、机器学习/人工智能(ML/AI)技术和严谨的设计、制造和测试过程而独特地设计和开发的。这项技术的成功将促进对拖带/系绳无人机系统的流体动力学、建模、决策和控制方面的知识和理解。自定位和自主控制算法的发展是基于复杂的系统动力学，这在以前还没有得到很好的探索。此外，还没有研究流经软管的流体压力及其对整体系统动力学的影响，也没有研究基于数据驱动的基于ML/AI的此类系统的指导、协调和控制技术。在之前通过理论推理、软件模拟和实验室实验测试进行的研究和开发中，这项技术仅使用机载商用现成(COTS)传感器就显示了其良好的自我定位和自我稳定/控制能力。该奖项反映了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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project focuses on the development of an intelligent robotic platform that offers secured, persistent, reliable, and autonomous solutions to time-consuming, complicated, and costly tasks of spraying fluid onto targeted areas, such as precision agriculture, private and public safety, utility inspection, search and rescue, telecommunication, traffic monitoring, news gathering, and defense. The technology provides a way to autonomously apply fluid (i.e., air or liquid) onto a specified large space or to pinpoint adaptively the areas that need to be targeted specifically. The technology offers 1) long-duration operation time and fast data processing using the uninterrupted power and data transmission provided by the tether in conjunction with the hose, 2) the intelligent coordination among physically-connected components (i.e., the aerial robot, hose, and ground subsystem), and 3) the machine learning/AI-based autonomous sensing, decision-making, data analytics, self-localization, navigation, and control capabilities. In addition, this platform provides a safety solution to the failure of control and power systems of the aerial robot. This I-Corps project will be an autonomous aerial robotic system towing a flexible hose connected to a mobile ground subsystem to provide autonomous, persistent, robust, and precision hosing capabilities. This system is uniquely designed and developed by applying rigid-body-dynamics theory, fluid-dynamics theory, control/estimation theory, machine-learning/artificial-intelligent (ML/AI) technologies, and rigorous design, fabrication, and testing processes. The success of this technology will advance the knowledge and understanding in fluid-dynamics, modeling, decision making, and control of towed-hose/tethered drone systems. The development of the self-localization and autonomous control algorithms are based on the sophisticated system dynamics that has not been well explored before. In addition, the pressure of fluid flowing through the hose and its effects on the dynamics of the holistic system have not been investigated, nor the data-driven ML/AI-based guidance, coordination, and control techniques for such systems. In previous studies and development via theoretical inference, software simulations, and lab experimental tests, this technology has shown its promising capabilities of self-localization and self-stabilization/control using only onboard commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors.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.