These wasp-like drones lift heavy loads with their belly

Renaud Visage / Getty Images Maybe you know wasps for their power to brainwash roaches or inflict one of the most painful bites on the planet – a power so powerful that the scientific advice to the victims consists of lying down and screaming until it pbades. It's less known that the wasp has the ability to withstand unexpectedly heavy charges given the size of the creature. Small drones, or "micro-air vehicles," can not lift the equivalent of their own weight. If we want flying robots capable of moving large objects without requiring them to be the size of a pterodactyl, engineers will have to find new ways to lift objects. The drone designers are therefore seeking help from wasps and developing creative ways of using the environment itself as a secret weapon in robotics. If a wasp stings and stuns prey too big for it to fly, the predator drags the thing. To do this, he uses a structure on his feet called arolium, a pad that helps them to grasp the surface. Associated with claws on the feet, the arolium allows the wasps to maneuver objects that they can not outright steal. Which means that they can hit – or sting – well above their weight clbad. Engineers want the drones to do the same. So, a new clbad of robots, known as FlyCroTugs, is inspired by these ferocious airmen. On the surface, they look like ordinary old quadrotors that could fit in your hand. But the secret is hidden in their belly. Sitting on the floor, one version of the machine uses hooks to catch bumps and stings to anchor to the surface, as do wasp claws, while another version uses a pad to stick to a surface smooth. The machines can then use a tiny winch to lift and slide objects up to 40 times their own weight. Kurt Hickman / Stanford News Service The physics of hooks is quite simple: good old way to anchor to take advantage . "We're just trying to put these hooks next to each other and letting them find their own hump and all join together to generate larger forces than a single hook," says Stanford Robotist, Matthew Estrada. , which describes today's machines in Science Robotics. The physics of the tablet, by contrast, is more dazzling. Technology, inspired not by the wasp foot, but by the gecko, is not particularly new. Stanford researchers have already used it to, for example, design a gripper capable of capturing one day bulky objects in orbit. The resulting forces can also give the FlyCroTug a grip similar to that of a gecko and give it the ability to lift like an insect.EPFL / Intelligent Systems LaboratoryThis trick is based on so-called vanishing forces. der Waals. A material at the bottom of the drone is filled with tiny streaks of silicone. When it comes into contact with a smooth surface and you pull it, the edges align with the surface in a uniform direction. (As you can see in the GIF below.) "They all go to bed and make very intimate contact with everything that is being blamed on them," says Estrada. The touch is so intimate that a tiny attraction develops at the molecular level for each peak. As they are so numerous in the material, these forces combine to produce excellent adhesion.Stanford / Biomimetics & AgileC Manipulation is how geckos can successfully climb on a wall and how FlyCroTugs can lift 40 times more weight. As long as the robots are motionless, for example, at the edge of a table, they can use the van der Waals forces to hoist objects much heavier than themselves. So, for example, lift a bottle of water that is lying on the floor. If you want to lift something bigger, you can use many of these tiny robots. This could be more useful than simply resizing drones to increase their power. This approach could make them less expensive to manufacture and allow them to navigate in tight spaces if needed. Who needs big when you have numbers? Unlike previous bio-inspired drones, FlyCroTug does not look for inspiration in a wasp just like a flying animal, but as a larger system. "Flying insects do not fly when they carry an object," says Soon-Jo Chung, a Caltech robot scientist, who developed a bats-inspired drone. They also drag loads that would otherwise be too heavy to carry. "This is the very interesting innovation and contribution of this document." In other words, using the soil or another feature of the environment can help overload new robots. Most robots roll on the ground or fly through the air without interacting too much with their environment. FlyCroTugs are fundamentally different: they exploit the environment itself to increase their power. A surface is not just something to navigate, it is a tool to use for large winches. This new lifting capacity is not only useful for dragging large objects. Two robots can also work together to handle complex manipulation such as opening a door. The first drone is put in place and extends a spring hook under the door. The spring hook of the second robot grabs the handle. The second robot then pulls the handle down while the first robot opens the door. Stanford / Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Lab The idea is that groups of adhesive robots can perform tasks with which some robots might struggle. "Maybe think each robot moves on a chess board," says Estrada. "How will you build by exerting these forces in different directions to achieve more skillful tasks?" Instead of loading complex capabilities into a very sophisticated and expensive robot, the solution in some cases may be the coordination of several robots instead. The researchers were able to combine the two techniques – hooks to catch raw materials and bearings for smooth – in a single drone that works on a larger number of surfaces. While leaving aside the stinger, of course. 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