Aerial-aquatic robots capable of crossing the air-water boundary and hitchhiking on surfaces.
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Many real-world applications for robots-such as long-term aerial and underwater observation, cross-medium operations, and marine life surveys-require robots with the ability to move between the air-water boundary. Here, we describe an aerial-aquatic hitchhiking robot that is self-contained for flying, swimming, and attaching to surfaces in both air and water and that can seamlessly move between the two. We describe this robot's redundant, hydrostatically enhanced hitchhiking device, inspired by the morphology of a remora (Echeneis naucrates) disc, which works in both air and water. As with the biological remora disc, this device has separate lamellar compartments for redundant sealing, which enables the robot to achieve adhesion and hitchhike with only partial disc attachment. The self-contained, rotor-based aerial-aquatic robot, which has passively morphing propellers that unfold in the air and fold underwater, can cross the air-water boundary in 0.35 second. The robot can perform rapid attachment and detachment on challenging surfaces both in air and under water, including curved, rough, incomplete, and biofouling surfaces, and achieve long-duration adhesion with minimal oscillation. We also show that the robot can attach to and hitchhike on moving surfaces. In field tests, we show that the robot can record video in both media and move objects across the air/water boundary in a mountain stream and the ocean. We envision that this study can pave the way for future robots with autonomous biological detection, monitoring, and tracking capabilities in a wide variety of aerial-aquatic environments.
Date Issued
2022-05-18
Date Acceptance
2022-04-27
Citation
Science Robotics, 2022, 7 (66), pp.1-13
ISSN
2470-9476
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Start Page
1
End Page
13
Journal / Book Title
Science Robotics
Volume
7
Issue
66
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works
Sponsor
The Royal Society
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35584203
Grant Number
RSWF/R1/180003
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2022-05-18