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Title: Design, Characterization and Control of a Whole-body Grasping and Perching (WHOPPEr) Drone
Flying robots can exploit perching abilities to position themselves on strategically-chosen locations and monitor the areas of interest from a critical vantage point. Moreover, they can significantly extend their battery life by turning off the propulsion systems when carrying out a surveillance mission. However, unknown disturbances arise from the physical interactions between the robot and the object, making it challenging to stabilize the robot during perching. In this paper, we present a Whole-body Grasping and Perching (WHOPPEr) Drone, which is capable of fast and robust perching by utilizing its entire body as the grasper in lieu of an add-on grasper. We first present the design concept, parameter selection and characterization of the novel whole-body grasping drone. Next, we analyze the grasping ability of the morphing chassis and present an aerodynamic analysis for the effect of motor thrust on the compliant arm. We finally demonstrate, via real-time experiments, the performance of WHOPPEr in autonomous perching and payload delivery tasks.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1828010
PAR ID:
10514482
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
IEEE
Date Published:
Journal Name:
2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
ISBN:
978-1-6654-9190-7
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 7
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
Detroit, MI, USA
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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