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Inspired by the natural world, the researchers designed a microdrone capable of firing objects up to 40 times its weight. By anchoring itself on various surfaces thanks to an adhesive action inspired by geckos and wasps, this tiny aerial vehicle is capable of lifting cameras, water bottles and even pulling the doorknobs, while the drone itself even is as light as a bar of soap.
The multimodal operation of FlyCroTugs allows them to combine small size, high mobility in congested and unstructured environments, and energetic handling. Credit: Robotic Science.
The FlyCroTugs drone was developed by Stanford Mark Cutkosky and Dario Floreano at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. Other similar drones previously demonstrated could only lift twice their own weight using only aerodynamic forces. To dramatically improve the towing power of their tiny aerial vehicle, the researchers turned to one of the world's most feared predators of insects: the wasp.
When a prey captures prey too big to be transported by flight, she chooses to drag it with the help of different attachment options. The researchers studied the different ways in which wasps choose to transport their prey and calculated the ratio of muscle / flight to flight, which determines whether the predator steals or drags its prey.
"When you're a little robot, the world is full of pitfalls," said Matthew Estrada, Stanford's graduate student and lead author of the new study published in Robotic science. "The combination of the aerodynamic forces of our aerial vehicle and the interaction forces generated with the fastening mechanisms has resulted in something very mobile, very powerful and micro."
When in contact with a smooth surface, FlyCroTugs uses gecko-type pliers that create non-stick intermolecular forces between the adhesive and the surface. For rough surfaces, the tiny flying robot inserts its 32 microspines into the small depressions of a surface and clings to it.
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Installing all this equipment inside a robot with only twice the weight of a golf ball was not easy, but the team was up to it. They ended up with a fast flying robot, small and handy, able to move very large loads up to 40 times its own weight.
"People tend to think that drones are machines that fly and observe the world, but flying insects do a lot of other things – like walking, climbing, grasping, building – and social insects can even cooperate to multiply the forces, "Floreano said in a statement. . "Thanks to this work, we show that small drones that are able to anchor themselves in the environment and collaborate with other drones can perform tasks generally attributed to humanoid robots or much larger machines."
FlyCroTugs represents a paradigm shift away from drones occupying a single niche. This shows not only that UAVs are excellent for navigating in remote locations, but they can also be used to interact with the physical world. During testing, the FlyCroTugs flew to the top of a ruined structure from where he shot a camera and even opened a door with the help of another drone (see video).
In the future, the team hopes to develop an autonomous system allowing them to maneuver and coordinate several FlyCroTugs at a time.
"The tools to create such vehicles are becoming more and more accessible," Estrada said. "I am excited by the prospect of increasingly incorporating these fixation mechanisms into the designer's toolbelt, allowing robots to take advantage of the forces of interaction with their environment and to use them for useful purposes. "
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