发表机构
University of Colorado Boulder; Imperial College London（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校; 帝国理工学院）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
该研究针对扑翼昆虫级空中机器人，开发了两种嵌入式本体感知传感器，可精准跟踪冲程与俯仰角，实现碰撞检测与异步扑翼，有望提升机器人性能。
AI 中文摘要
现代扑翼昆虫级空中飞行器展现出与昆虫相当的敏捷性，但这些出色的机动仅能依靠光学跟踪相机等外置传感器实现。本文介绍了两种用于昆虫级空中机器人的嵌入式本体感知传感器：直接集成于驱动作动器的薄膜压电聚合物，以及用于分别跟踪冲程和俯仰角的俯仰铰链。我们采用层叠制造方法制备上述与尺寸无关的机械智能结构（传感器-作动器、传感器-柔性件）。将传感器集成到昆虫尺寸扑翼机器人上的啁啾实验显示，在相关频率范围内，冲程（均方根误差RMSE=0.44度）和俯仰角（RMSE=2.44度）都得到了准确跟踪。作为展示这些传感器用于实现众多机载自主应用（包括闭环翼拍控制，以及与现有昆虫级传感器套件进行传感器融合以实现更精准的本体感知和定位）实用性的第一步，我们为每种传感器展示了一项应用：本体感知铰链可实现碰撞检测，降低机器人机翼与物体碰撞时发生永久损坏的概率；本体感知作动器可实现异步扑翼，据推测这能提升昆虫和机器人的适应性与效率。配备我们本体感知作动器的微型机器人让我们得以验证这些假设，有望提升扑翼空中机器人的性能。由于传感器的生物启发特性和高集成度，我们预见本体感知传感器将在推进昆虫级空中机器人和机器人物理学领域发挥重要作用。
英文摘要
Modern flapping-wing insect-scale air vehicles display agility similar to that of their insect counterparts; however, these impressive maneuvers are only possible with off-board sensors like optical tracking cameras. In this manuscript, we introduce two embedded proprioceptive sensors for insect-scale aerial robots: thin film piezoelectric polymers integrated directly into a driving actuator and a pitching hinge which track stroke and pitch angle, respectively. We fabricate the aforementioned size-agnostic mechanically intelligent structures (sensor-actuator, sensor-flexure) using laminate stack fabrication methods. Chirp experiments with our sensors integrated into an insect-size flapping-wing robot show accurate tracking of stroke (RMSE = 0.44 deg) and pitch (RMSE = 2.44 deg) angles in the relevant frequency range. As the first step towards demonstrating the utility of these sensors for enabling numerous onboard autonomy applications, including closed-loop wingbeat control and sensor fusion with existing insect-scale sensor suites for more accurate proprioception and localization, we show one application for each sensor. The proprioceptive hinge enables collision detection, reducing the chance of permanent damage if the robot's wing collides with an object. The proprioceptive actuator enables asynchronous flapping, which is hypothesized to increase adaptability and efficiency in insects and robots alike. A microrobot equipped with our proprioceptive actuator allows us to test these hypotheses with potential for improving flapping aerial robot performance. We foresee proprioceptive sensors having an important role in progressing both the fields of insect-scale aerial robots and robo-physics due to the bio-inspired nature and high integration level of our sensors.
Comments8 pages, 6 figures, this work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible
