Multi link Aerial Robot

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Dineshkumar E

Drones or Unmanned Aerial vehicles are used widely to do various things in fields like logistics, rescue, surveillance, inspection, and many more. More innovations are happening in the structure of the aerial vehicles to reduce the size of the aerial robot to make it more agile. Multirotors are more stable than fixed-wing but the size of the drone and the rotor positioning make it inaccessible in small areas.

In this drone project, we will try to implement biomimicry design in aerial robots to solve the structural issue in accessing small areas. Aerial transformation is one way to solve the problem. Here we are going to implement a biomimicry design similar to snake with the help of multi-link structure. This provides the ability of multi-degree of freedom aerial transformation. 

Read more..

SLNOTE
Design of the Aerial robot

The aerial robots are built with dual rotor configuration with tilt mechanism placed on a gimbal and the robots are connected using a two degree of freedom joint module. This section briefly describes the functioning of the aerial robot:

Thrust rotor module: It consists of two miniature ducted fan motors to provide the required thrust. Ducted fans are more efficient than conventional propellers of similar size as it reduces the blade tip losses. Ducted fan motors are small in size but generate high power. These motors are tilted with the help of servo motors to achieve the pitch up and down motion. Also, the motors rotate in opposite directions to counter the torque produced.

SLLATEST
2DoF Gimbal Module: This module holds the thrust rotor assembly with a servo motor. And actuates the thrust motor module to perform roll motion. This makes the drone to achieve the motion in right and left direction.

2DoF Joint Module: This is the main source that supports aerial transformation. It comprises of a servo motor to interconnect the other modules while in air. Mostly these linkages are kept locked while hovering

Components used:

Sensors: IMU sensors play an important role in balancing the aerial vehicle. This sensor helps in detecting the motion of the vehicle and actuates the motors accordingly to keep it balanced. Sensors like accelerometer and gyroscope are used.

Battery: As always Battery is used to power the aerial vehicle. Lithium batteries are used because of their high energy density.

Flight controller: This acts as the brain of the vehicle that helps to process the received commands. 

CAN - Controller Aera Network is used for communication because of its advantages like built-in error detection, robustness, speed, flexibility, etc.

Drones have a wide range of applications and it is in our hand to explore the capabilities of the drone and utilize it at its full potential. The project that we discussed in this article has the high-level advantages of aerial manoeuvring and manipulation. Moving forward this project can be integrated with computer vision to automatically transform to achieve the desired structure to pass through a narrow path or environment.

SLDYK
Kit required to develop Multi link Aerial Robot:

• bldc motor
• Propeller

Technologies you will learn by working on Multi link Aerial Robot:

• Drone
• Mechanical
• Aerodynamics
• Electronic
• Aeronautical
• Robotics

Any Questions?