Synergistic morphology and feedback control for traversal of unknown compliant obstacles with aerial robots.

ABSTRACT: Animals traverse vegetation by direct physical interaction using their entire body to push aside and slide along compliant obstacles. Current drones lack this interaction versatility that stems from synergies between body morphology and feedback control modulated by sensing. Taking inspiration from nature, we show that a task-oriented design allows a drone with a minimalistic controller to traverse obstacles with unknown elastic responses. A discoid sensorized shell allows to establish and sense contacts anywhere along the shell and facilitates sliding along obstacles. This simplifies the formalization of the control strategy, which does not require a model of the interaction with the environment, nor high-level switching conditions for alternating between pushing and sliding. We utilize a

SUBMITTER: Aucone E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10965961 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature