Collaborative Research: Omnidirectional Perching on Dynamic Surfaces: Emergence of Robust Behaviors from Joint Learning of Embodied and Motor Control

该项目将赋予小型飞行器(如四轴飞行器)在任意方向的静止或运动表面上自主和通用栖息的能力，从而扩大它们在侦察、检查、监视、环境监测和搜救领域的作战能力。例如，它将使他们能够降落在随海起伏和摇摆的帆船上，搭便车到移动的地面或空中平台上充电或安全，帮助人类飞行员轻松将无人机降落在自己选择的目标上(例如，在墙壁、电线和桥下)。这项研究将集中于通过一个集成的学习框架来共同设计具体化的物理和计算智能，以在大多数情况下实现稳健的栖息。该项目还将通过视觉上吸引人的互动机器人飞行和栖息实验，为K-12学生创建STEM教育框架，介绍机器人学、机器学习、机械设计、智能材料和飞行原理等多学科概念。此外，研究成果将被整合到面向本科生的各种教育和推广模块以及一般劳动力发展中，利用宾夕法尼亚州立大学新成立的NSF资助的自主空中机动和传感中心(CAAMS)。这项研究的目标是将物理体现智能和计算智能的设计和学习模式结合起来，以实现小型飞行器强大的全方位栖息所需的广泛动态着陆机制。身体智能将通过一种新颖的起落架系统实现，该起落架系统带有一系列受生物启发的微型机器人鞑靼，它们的顺应性可以在触地得分期间现场快速调整。计算智能将通过1)通过学习预测策略区域和用于电机控制的相关策略映射来启动和控制栖息角机动，以及2)基于视觉的、光流约束的tau制导同时将机器人带入目标策略区域和目标着陆位置来实现。最后，计算智能将通过一个双层框架与物理智能相结合，该框架由联合学习组成：a)机械设计和发动机控制政策，b)具体和发动机控制政策，因为前者将控制生物启发的Tarsi遵从性，后者将控制空中机动。总而言之，这个项目将促进机器人在计算智能和物理智能之间的共同设计、集成、相互作用和权衡方面的知识，以实现新的和强大的能力。该项目由跨部门机器人基础研究计划支持，该计划由工程学指导委员会(ENG)和计算机与信息科学与工程指导委员会(CEISE)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 project will endow small aerial vehicles (e.g., quadcopters) with autonomous and universal perching capability on stationary or moving surfaces of arbitrary orientations, thereby expanding their operational capabilities in the areas of reconnaissance, inspection, surveillance, environmental monitoring, and search and rescue. For example, it will enable them to land on a sailing ship that heaves and sways with the sea, to hitchhike onto a moving ground or aerial platform for charging or safety, to assist a human-pilot to easily land a drone on self-selected targets (e.g., on walls, powerlines, and underneath a bridge). The research will focus on the co-design of embodied physical and computational intelligence through an integrated learning framework to achieve robust perching in most circumstances. The project will also create a STEM educational framework for K-12 students through visually appealing, interactive robotic flight and perching experiments to introduce multidisciplinary concepts in robotics, machine learning, mechanical design, smart materials, and flight principles. Furthermore, the research outcomes will be integrated into various educational and outreach modules for undergraduate students as well as general workforce development, leveraging the newly NSF-funded Center for Autonomous Air Mobility and Sensing (CAAMS) at Pennsylvania State University.The objective of this research is to combine the design and learning modalities of both physically embodied intelligence and computational intelligence to enable a wide range of dynamic touchdown mechanisms necessary for robust omnidirectional perching of small aerial vehicles. Physical intelligence will be achieved via a novel landing gear system with an array of bio-inspired, miniature robotic tarsi, whose compliance can be rapidly tuned on the spot during the touchdown. Computational intelligence will be achieved via 1) the initiation and control of perching angular maneuvers by learning predictive policy regions and the associated policy mapping for motor control and 2) vision based, optical-flow-constrained tau-guidance that simultaneously brings a robot into the target policy region and the target landing location. Finally, computational intelligence will be integrated with physical intelligence through a two-layered framework composed of joint learning of: a) mechanical design and motor control policies and b) embodied and motor control policies, respectively, as the former component would control the bio-inspired tarsi compliance and the latter would control the aerial maneuvers. In conclusion, this project will advance knowledge in the co-design, integration, interplay, and trade-offs between computational and physical intelligence in robots to achieve novel and robust capabilities. 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.