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research article

A Collision Resilient Flying Robot

Briod, Adrien  
•
Kornatowski, Przemyslaw Mariusz  
•
Zufferey, Jean-Christophe  
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2014
Journal of Field Robotics

Flying robots that can locomote efficiently in GPS-denied cluttered environments have many applications, such as in search and rescue scenarios. However, dealing with the high amount of obstacles inherent to such environments is a major challenge for flying vehicles. Conventional flying platforms cannot afford to collide with obstacles, as the disturbance from the impact may provoke a crash to the ground, especially when friction forces generate torques affecting the attitude of the platform. We propose a concept of resilient flying robots capable of colliding into obstacles without compromising their flight stability. Such platforms present great advantages over existing robots as they are capable of robust flight in cluttered environments without the need for complex sense and avoid strategies or 3D mapping of the environment. We propose a design comprising an inner frame equipped with conventional propulsion and stabilization systems enclosed in a protective cage that can rotate passively thanks to a 3-axis gimbal system, which reduces the impact of friction forces on the attitude of the inner frame. After addressing important design considerations thanks to a collision model and validation experiments, we present a proof-of-concept platform, named GimBall, capable of flying in various cluttered environments. Field experiments demonstrate the robot's ability to fly fully autonomously through a forest while experiencing multiple collisions.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1002/rob.21495
Web of Science ID

WOS:000337679200002

Author(s)
Briod, Adrien  
Kornatowski, Przemyslaw Mariusz  
Zufferey, Jean-Christophe  
Floreano, Dario  
Date Issued

2014

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published in
Journal of Field Robotics
Volume

31

Issue

4

Start page

469

End page

509

Subjects

Insect

•

Flying Robots

•

Collisions

•

Biology

•

Resilience

•

Robustness

•

Gimbal System

•

Gimball

•

Aerial Robotics

Note

in press (airburr)

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LIS  
NCCR-ROBOTICS  
Available on Infoscience
November 29, 2013
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/97361
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