UAV Locking Landing Pad With Rotating Bars for Stable Transport
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ground-based robots are unable to effectively explore and map subterranean environments with tall ceilings and vertical shafts due to limitations in sensor and camera capabilities, hindering the ability to view and locate artifacts in such spaces.
Innovation Solution
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is deployed from a ground vehicle, which lands on a platform with a retainer system featuring rotating bars that secure the UAV in place, allowing it to map areas inaccessible to conventional ground-based robots, including urban terrain, tunnels, and caves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a ground-based robot uses conventional sensors and cameras to explore environments, then it can operate with simple structure and low cost, but it cannot effectively explore and map subterranean environments with tall ceilings and vertical shafts
Solution Approach 1:
The UAV is nested within the ground-based robot system, allowing the ground vehicle to carry and deploy the aerial vehicle. The UAV can be stored in a compartment or bay of the ground vehicle, enabling the combined system to access both ground-level and aerial spaces, thereby exploring tall ceilings and vertical shafts that would be inaccessible to the ground vehicle alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from two-dimensional ground-based exploration to three-dimensional exploration by deploying the UAV into the air. This adds the vertical dimension to the exploration capability, allowing the system to map and investigate tall ceilings, vertical shafts, and other elevated features that conventional ground-based robots cannot reach.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the UAV is deployed from the ground vehicle without a securing mechanism, then the system remains simple, but the UAV cannot remain stable during ground vehicle movement
Solution Approach 1:
The retainer system is pre-configured in the ground vehicle, with rotating bars positioned to engage with the UAV before movement begins. When the UAV is loaded onto the platform, the retainer components are already in place and can quickly secure the UAV, preventing instability during transport without requiring complex real-time adjustment mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The retainer system uses rotating bars that can dynamically adjust their position to secure the UAV. The bars can rotate into place to contact and hold the UAV, providing stability during movement, and can rotate away to release the UAV when needed. This dynamic mechanism provides secure transport without requiring overly complex fixed structures.
3Reliability
If the retainer uses a complex locking mechanism to secure the UAV, then the UAV can be firmly held during movement, but the locking and release operations become time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The retainer system uses periodic rotational motion of the bars to achieve locking and release. The bars rotate into position to secure the UAV with protrusions that contact the vehicle body, and rotate away to release it. This periodic rotational action allows for quick, repeatable securing and releasing operations that are both reliable and time-efficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex multi-component mechanical locking mechanisms with a simpler rotating bar system. The protrusions on the rotating bars provide the necessary mechanical engagement to secure the UAV reliably, while the single-degree-of-freedom rotation simplifies the actuation mechanism, reducing the time required for locking and release operations.
Data Source
AI summary
This specification describes systems for unmanned aerial vehicle carrying and deployment. In some examples, an unmanned vehicle includes a drive system and a chassis. The chassis includes a platform for carrying an unmanned aerial vehicle and a retainer configured to secure the unmanned aerial vehicle to the platform while the drive system drives the unmanned vehicle. The clamping system includes at least a first rotating bar and a protrusion from the first rotating bar.