51. The Foldable Drone: A Morphing Quadrotor That Can Squeeze and Fly
- Author
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Stefano Mintchev, Davide Scaramuzza, Dario Floreano, Kevin Kleber, Davide Falanga, University of Zurich, and Falanga, Davide
- Subjects
0209 industrial biotechnology ,2606 Control and Optimization ,Control and Optimization ,1707 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition ,Computer science ,10009 Department of Informatics ,motion control ,design ,Biomedical Engineering ,ComputingMethodologies_IMAGEPROCESSINGANDCOMPUTERVISION ,2210 Mechanical Engineering ,2207 Control and Systems Engineering ,2204 Biomedical Engineering ,1702 Artificial Intelligence ,02 engineering and technology ,000 Computer science, knowledge & systems ,1709 Human-Computer Interaction ,020901 industrial engineering & automation ,Match moving ,Artificial Intelligence ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,1706 Computer Science Applications ,Computer vision ,business.industry ,Mechanical Engineering ,Frame (networking) ,Propeller ,aerial systems: applications ,Optimal control ,Motion control ,Drone ,Computer Science Applications ,robust/adaptive control of robotic systems ,Human-Computer Interaction ,Controllability ,Morphing ,aerial systems: mechanics and control ,flight ,Control and Systems Engineering ,Robot ,020201 artificial intelligence & image processing ,Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition ,Artificial intelligence ,business - Abstract
The recent advances in state estimation, perception, and navigation algorithms have significantly contributed to the ubiquitous use of quadrotors for inspection, mapping, and aerial imaging. To further increase the versatility of quadrotors, recent works investigated the use of an adaptive morphology, which consists of modifying the shape of the vehicle during flight to suit a specific task or environment. However, these works either increase the complexity of the platform or decrease its controllability. In this letter, we propose a novel, simpler, yet effective morphing design for quadrotors consisting of a frame with four independently rotating arms that fold around the main frame. To guarantee stable flight at all times, we exploit an optimal control strategy that adapts on the fly to the drone morphology. We demonstrate the versatility of the proposed adaptive morphology in different tasks, such as negotiation of narrow gaps, close inspection of vertical surfaces, and object grasping and transportation. The experiments are performed on an actual, fully autonomous quadrotor relying solely on onboard visual-inertial sensors and compute. No external motion tracking systems and computers are used. This is the first work showing stable flight without requiring any symmetry of the morphology.
- Published
- 2019