[ad_1]
The laws of physics can be brutal, and perhaps they are not more than in the field of robotics.
Researchers and designers in the field are constantly faced with problems of size and scale: the construction of small robots makes it difficult to include all the necessary sensors, actuators and propulsion units; To make big ones, it means experiencing uncomfortable turmoil in the strength and fuel needed for things to work.
Researchers led by Raphael Zufferey of the Aerial Robotics Lab at the Imperial College of London in the UK, however, have come up with a potentially elegant solution to a particularly tricky problem: the construction of a robotic glider that can take off of water.
In an article published in the journal Robotic science, the researchers describe a prototype vehicle capable of achieving a practical aerial-aquatic mobility.
Robots able to move in the water and then take off in the air have obvious attractions. They could perform detection and monitoring tasks in "congested aquatic environments," the researchers write, then simply get out of the water and return to the base by air – a medium that causes much less friction and trail and that might be less crowded.
Many previous attempts to design robots capable of transitioning from water to air have been hampered by the fact that this was a very energy-intensive process, which means that the load fuel required for small machines to get enough thrust was quite heavy. to defeat the goal.
To solve this problem, Zufferey and his colleagues turned to calcium carbide powder, a chemical compound commonly used in the industry. When it is mixed with water, it produces acetylene gas, widely used for welding.
The reaction also produces energy. The researchers discovered that by loading only 0.2 gram in their 160 gram robotic glider and exposing it to the water, the vehicle was projected into the air and was traveling 26 meters.
The glider robot is a prototype but can be used in many ways. The researchers added that the further development "offers a promising solution for high-density aerial-aquatic power propulsion in robotics".
This paper is not the first to explore the potential uses of calcium carbide to power small robots.
In 2017, a team of robotists led by Robert Siddall, also from Imperial College, reported the use of a solid version to produce "acetylene explosions in a propellant to water jet of 34 grams.
Outdoor tests of the aerial-aquatic robot.
Zufferey et al., Sci. Robot. 4, eaax7330 (2019)
[ad_2]
Source link