A Quadrotor With an Origami-Inspired Protective Mechanism
Jing Shu, Pakpong Chirarattananon
Abstract
Despite advances in localization and navigation, aerial robots inevitably remain susceptible to accidents and collisions. In this letter, we propose a passive foldable airframe as a protective mechanism for a small aerial robot. A foldable quadrotor is designed and fabricated using the origami-inspired manufacturing paradigm. Upon an accidental mid-flight collision, the deformable airframe is mechanically activated. The rigid frame reconfigures its structure to protect the central part of the robot that houses sensitive components from a crash to the ground. The proposed robot is fabricated, modeled, and characterized. The 51-g vehicle demonstrates the desired folding sequence in less than 0.15 s when colliding with a wall when flying.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2019_aquadrotorwithan,
title = {A Quadrotor With an Origami-Inspired Protective Mechanism},
author = {Jing Shu and Pakpong Chirarattananon},
booktitle = {RA-L 2019},
year = {2019}
}