H2020Индивидуална стипендия2021–2023

FAAV · Design and locomotion of Bio-inspired Flapping-Wing Aerial-Aquatic robots

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2021-12-01 → 2023-11-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 191 149 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Биомиметичните роботи с махащи крила изследват как едно устройство може да се движи едновременно във въздуха и във водата, подобно на гмуркащите се птици. Това помага за по-ефективното събиране на данни за замърсяването и състоянието на водните екосистеми.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Design and locomotion of Bio-inspired Flapping-Wing Aerial-Aquatic robots

More than ever before we are realizing the importance of our lakes, rivers and oceans. Conservation of our water ecosystems as well as climate models and flood management all depend on the availability of local, rapid and extensive environmental data. There are important open questions regarding the impacts of climate change on water temperature and water flow alteration, sedimentation in glacial flows, algal blooms, coral reef degradation, fishery exploitation, pressures due to invasive alien species, emissions of pesticides, pollutants and microplastics. To this day, all these issues cannot be well quantified due to a lack of available data. The importance of advancing our knowledge of water systems advocates for the development of aerial-aquatic robots as a transformative solution for effective monitoring. Data collection has improved (for example from remote satellite imagery or autonomous sinking-rising buoys e.g. ARGO floats), but coverage in space and time is still insufficient to provide a consistent picture globally, and the existing solutions are expensive. This project aims to push our knowledge in mobile robotics, focusing on locomotion capabilities in air and in water. Biology provides a strong source of inspiration for solving the extremely challenging constraints that aerial-aquatic operation poses. Indeed, over 20 species of diving birds routinely fly and swim, some even reaching depths of over 100 m. These examples serve as design starting points, which need to carefully integrate engineering limitations. The specific objectives of this project is to understand how flapping flight can adapt to two vastly different media in a small, mobile system. Through the use of robotics, flight, swimming and transitions locomotion are explored. In conclusion, hybrid locomotion with flapping propulsion has been successfully achieved in a limited set of conditions. This is clearly just the beginning towards these robots seamlessly moving in and out of our aquatic environments, but the application potential is vast and the current results demonstrate the validity of the approach. Further efforts are required to improve control methods, efficiencies and propulsive power, as well as continued research regarding the impact of wind, wave and current natural elements, which are ubiquitous outdoors.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

As our world is experiencing climate changes, we need better monitoring technologies. Since most of our planet is covered in water, sample and data collection in rivers, lakes and oceans plays a leading role in our world’s understanding. While robotics shows huge promises in this task, aquatic environments remain challenging to operate in. There is thus a strong need for light, affordable and resilient mobile robots that can operate and rapidly collect multiple measurements in these environments. Aerial-aquatic robots are promising to combine the capability to cover large distance in air, overcoming obstacles with the ability to physically interact, measure, and sample our lakes, rivers and oceans. For that, we need to study new locomotion methods and platforms that (1) can effectively move from water to air and transition in-between (2) can cope with the highly complex and dynamic nature of our environment i.e. wind, waves (3) possess a high level of autonomy and reliability to reliably operate with climate scientists. For this, I propose a small-scale flapping wing approach. Animals have readily shown aerial-aquatic locomotion and therefore are a tremendous source for inspiration, already demonstrating the capabilities of flapping-wing. These devices are inherently safe thanks to their low velocities, also preventing breakage, and promise to efficiently move both in air and in water.This project will result in the first Flapping wing, Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle - or FAAV capable of carrying relevant sensory payload. This will build upon a theoretical model of this locomotion strategy and successive tests both in air and underwater, leading to an efficient, reliable device capable of sub-surface and air motion. The resulting designs will be field-tested in realistic outdoor conditions and equipped with navigation and data-collection capabilities for environmental research.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE · LausanneКоординаторШвейцария