Origami-Inspired Foldable Quad-Rotor for Cluttered Environments
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles face challenges in autonomous motion planning and control due to their nonlinear and underactuated nature, particularly in complex environments with multiple obstacles, where traditional rigid structures limit maneuverability and fabrication complexity.
Innovation Solution
A foldable quad-rotor design inspired by origami techniques, featuring a laminate structure with a dynamic foldable mechanism that allows in-flight morphing, utilizing a servo-arm mechanism and feedback controller for stability and trajectory planning, enabling additional degrees of freedom and improved handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a rigid structure is used for quad-rotor fabrication, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but maneuverability and handling in complex environments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a foldable arm structure that can dynamically change its configuration between extended and retracted states. The arms are equipped with folding mechanisms that allow them to change shape during flight, enabling the quad-rotor to adapt its geometry for different maneuvering requirements while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through modular design
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid structure is divided into multiple foldable segments that can independently adjust their positions. The arms are segmented into sections connected by folding joints, allowing each segment to move relative to others, thereby providing enhanced maneuverability while keeping each individual segment simple to manufacture
2Stability of the object's composition
If a rigid structure is used for quad-rotor design, then structural stability is improved, but motion planning complexity in underactuated systems increases
Solution Approach 1:
The foldable arms introduce dynamic reconfigurability to the structure, allowing the moment of inertia and mass distribution to be adjusted during flight. This dynamic adjustment capability simplifies motion planning by enabling the system to optimize its inertial properties for different maneuvering tasks, reducing the computational complexity of controlling underactuated systems
3Device complexity
If arm length is fixed in conventional quad-rotors, then structural simplicity is maintained, but energy efficiency and obstacle avoidance capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements variable arm length capability through folding mechanisms that allow the arms to extend and retract during flight. This dynamic adjustment enables the quad-rotor to optimize its energy consumption by adapting arm length to task requirements and improves obstacle avoidance by reconfiguring the structure to pass through narrow spaces while maintaining relatively simple structural design
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments for a foldable quad-rotor (FQR) inspired by an origami mechanism are disclosed herein. The FQR can fold its arms during flight to enable aggressive turning maneuvers and operations in cluttered environments. A dynamic model of folding is built for this system with the collected data, and a feedback controller is designed to control the position and orientation of the FQR. Lyapunov stability analysis is conducted to show that the system is stable during arm folding and extension, and motion planning of the FQR is achieved based on a modified minimum-snap trajectory generation method.