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、环境管理和灾害应对等短期任务方面正变得越来越有用。然而，目前的技术限制了飞行耐力，而且一些任务场景需要更长的操作时间。频繁降落在地面或水体上，有可能通过允许补给而有效地延长任务持续时间。尽管反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的设计都没有这种功能，因为增加的设计限制显著影响了巡航性能(例如，飞行时间、航程、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，在小范围内，跳跃是自然界首选的起飞方法，各种大小和飞行能力的鸟类和昆虫都使用跳跃从陆地或水中过渡到飞行。这个研究项目将跳跃作为向飞行的过渡，我们称之为“跳跃”。这种混合移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一种“跳跃滑翔”无人机的开发，这种无人机利用了被动可枢转的机翼。这种无人机是第一架展示有效起飞和比同等弹道跳跃器长得多的空中轨迹的无人机。这项提案中概述的研究旨在利用最近在跳伞方面的突破来发展动力跳跃。 可以预见，这项研究将导致三种创新的跳跃策略：频繁跳高然后短滑翔，少小跳跃然后长飞行阶段，以及强大的多方向跳跃然后高度敏捷的飞行。为了评估在什么条件下以及在多大程度上这些都是合适的，这项研究将调查与以下问题有关的问题：(1)螺旋桨在低飞行速度下的启动动力学；(2)具有显著起飞约束的短程飞行、瞬时空气动力学和地面效应；(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)从水面上跳跃的可能性。当与经典的飞机多学科优化技术相结合时，通过这项研究获得的详细知识将导致对跳跃和为各种任务优化的原型的全面理解。最后，将这些原型的巡航性能和起飞能力与现有的无人机和模型飞机进行比较。 预计从长远来看，跳跃飞行将带来一种实用的、极其节能的移动模式，能够在地面和空中操作之间交替进行。有了充电能力，跳跃有效地将小型无人机的任务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任务持续时间的新应用成为可能。例如，可以在加拿大北部的许多湖泊上部署一组跳伞者，在调查森林火灾和为船上的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、跟踪有毒物质泄漏和监视。这个为期五年的项目将培训六名研究生，他们的领域包括机器人、航空学、仿生设计、动力学、控制和制造。

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.