NASA - THE ALBATROSS FLIGHT

NASA Albatross Dynamic Soaring Open Ocean Persistent Platform UAV Concept

This concept investigate the feasibility of a dynamic soaring (DS) UAV that will have an endurance on the order of months.

This capability is enabling for numerous civil missions from ocean and atmospheric science to fishery surveillance and monitoring. Many of these missions are simply not feasible do to the cost of operating a fueled aircraft with limited endurance.

An aircraft such as this could be built in the thousands. They would distribute themselves over the oceans of the planet providing a robust surveillance network that has persistence which is only limited by the reliability of the hardware. This aircraft is based on the Albatross which in habitats the southern oceans by Antarctica.

The typical Albatross weighs about 25 lbs. They have an aspect ratio 16 wing with an 11 foot span. They are estimated to have an L/D of 27. Since there are few static soaring opportunities over the ocean, the Albatross uses a technique called Dynamic Soaring (DS) to maintain flight. Dynamic soaring is a figure eight-like flight maneuver that takes advantage of horizontal wind gradients to maintain flight speed and altitude.

The albatross can travel over 1000 km per day without ever flapping their wings through the constant use of such maneuvers, while able to tack any direction with independence of wind direction The Albatross is also able to lock their shoulder joint to rest their muscles and even capable of sleeping while performing the DS flight maneuvers.

This UAV Concept has the same weight and size of the Albatross and would be propelled by the wind alone utilizing this same DS technique. Tip turbines on the wing tips extract power from the tip vortex to power the payload and recharge the batteries. When the wind dies the aircraft has the ability to safely land on the surface of the ocean. Solar cells will be used to keep the payload and other electronics running. The tip turbines can also be used as propellers to provide takeoff thrust and at other times to provide auxiliary propulsion to allow the aircraft to maneuver away from an obstacle.


Dynamic Soaring: How the Wandering Albatross Can Fly for Free


WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

Wireless steerable vision for live insects and insect-scale robots

Vision serves as an essential sensory input for insects but consumes substantial energy resources. The cost to support sensitive photoreceptors has led many insects to develop high visual acuity in only small retinal regions and evolve to move their visual systems independent of their bodies through head motion.

By understanding the trade-offs made by insect vision systems in nature, we can design better vision systems for insect-scale robotics in a way that balances energy, computation, and mass. Here, we report a fully wireless, power-autonomous, mechanically steerable vision system that imitates head motion in a form factor small enough to mount on the back of a live beetle or a similarly sized terrestrial robot.

Our electronics and actuator weigh 248 milligrams and can steer the camera over 60° based on commands from a smartphone. The camera streams "first person" 160 pixels-by-120 pixels monochrome video at 1 to 5 frames per second (fps) to a Bluetooth radio from up to 120 meters away.

We mounted this vision system on two species of freely walking live beetles, demonstrating that triggering image capture using an onboard accelerometer achieves operational times of up to 6 hours with a 10-milliamp hour battery.

We also built a small, terrestrial robot (1.6 centimeters by 2 centimeters) that can move at up to 3.5 centimeters per second, support vision, and operate for 63 to 260 minutes.

Our results demonstrate that steerable vision can enable object tracking and wide-angle views for 26 to 84 times lower energy than moving the whole robot.

More : https://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/5/44/eabb0839

Scientific publication : https://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuse


Contact:

Vikram Iyer

vsiyer@uw.edu
185 Stevens Way, AE100R Campus Box 352500
Paul G. Allen Center, Department of Electrical Engineering
Seattle, WA 98195-2500

About      News      Publications      CV

About Me


I am a final year PhD. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington where I work in the Network and Mobile Systems Lab with Shyam Gollakota. I also work closely with Sawyer Fuller who runs the Autonomous Insect Robotics Lab. My research focuses on wireless technologies such as communication, power and localization for a variety of resource constrained platforms including low power sensors and insect scale robots. Recently I have been focused on developing bio-integrative systems such as cameras and sensors small enough to ride on the back of live insects like bumblebees and beetles. I am also a part of the Urban Innovation Initiative at Microsoft Research working on Project Eclipsea low-cost cloud connected air quality monitoring platform for cities.

Before coming to UW I did my Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley where I worked on a chip scale flow cytometer with Bernhard Boser.

I will be applying for faculty positions this year. I expect to graduate in spring 2021.

 

FESTO


 

 

 

Nature inspires FESTO.

Through the Bionic Learning NetworkNatural principles are applied in technical and industrial applications.

The results are breathtaking!


The Bionic Learning Network

New ideas in the world of automation Automation technology takes on typical everyday tasks such as handling, moving and positioning of articles, as well as process control and regulation. In nature, these tasks are carried out naturally, simply and energy-efficiently. What could be more sensible than to observe these phenomena and be inspired by them?

With this in mind, Festo has set up a research group in cooperation with renowned universities and institutes, development companies and private inventors: the Bionic Learning Network.


FESTO's goals: more than just developing new technologies

Providing new impetus and encouraging innovation, inspiring and inspiring: as a technology leader and supporter of learning and training, Festo has set clear goals for the Bionic Learning Network:

  • Connecting networks and motivating people from different sectors to develop their ideas with Festo
  • Identify the latest trends in the research and development sector, while experimenting with new technologies and production techniques
  • To increase creativity in the search for solutions and to stimulate pre-development of products by building prototypes
  • Create a dialogue with customers and partners to discuss draft solutions and gather customer feedback on innovative topics
  • Presenting Festo's solution skills in an attractive way to get young people excited about technology and to find new talent

The Festo board in the Biomim'review Gallery:

 


The gallery in video ! :

 

 

GREEN TURTLE

8 million tonnes of waste go into the world's waters every year. Green Turtle is the design of a waste-tracking turtle robot by students at ESTACA.

 

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Contact:

Clara MARTIN

2A Aeronautics

+33 6.75.61.56.24

clara.martin@estaca.eu

Green Turtle Communication Unit

Competition Manager

ESTACA Campus West

Laval-Changé University Park

Rue Georges Charpak - BP 76121

53061 Laval Cedex 9

 

ELWAVE

ELECTROMAGNETIC DETECTION AND NAVIGATION

ELWAVE DESIGNS, MANUFACTURES AND SELLS ELECTROMAGNETIC DETECTION, NAVIGATION AND CHARACTERISATION SYSTEMS BASED ON INNOVATIVE "ELECTRIC SENSE" TECHNOLOGY.

ELWAVE

For subscribers only

ELWAVE, electrical sensory detection

ELECTROMAGNETIC DETECTION AND NAVIGATION

ELWAVE DESIGNS, MANUFACTURES AND SELLS ELECTROMAGNETIC DETECTION, NAVIGATION AND CHARACTERISATION SYSTEMS BASED ON INNOVATIVE "ELECTRIC SENSE" TECHNOLOGY.
Simple to use, robust and adaptable for all types of vehicles and robots, ELWAVE solutions provide real-time 360° perception capability in complex underwater and industrial environments.
ELWAVE provides solutions adapted for different environments and operational constraints (congestion, depth at which used, etc.).

Bio-inspired ?

ELWAVE develops solutions based on electrical sensory perception, known as "electric sense", developed since 2007 by the biorobotics research group in Mines-Telecom Atlantique Institute.

ELWAVE technology takes its inspiration from the sensory mode used by tropical freshwater fish (African mormyrids and South American gymnotiforms), which have developed electrical sensory perception in order to move around, capture their prey and communicate with each other in an environment where vision and sonar (acoustic communication - echolocation) are inefficient.

Electrical sensory perception is based on sensing disturbances produced by the environment in an electric field generated by fish: these fish emit a 360° electric field around themselves which is disturbed by obstacles in their habitat, by other fish and by predators. The electro-receptor cells in their skin detect, measure and record these disturbances to create a three-dimensional image of their surroundings at any given moment.


Releases :

INSTITUT CARNOT - MINES / ELWAVE equips robots with a 6th sense with its "electric sense" technology


Website


Contact:

  • ELWAVE
    ITM Atlantic Business Centre
    2 rue Alfred Kastler, CS40617
    44300 NANTES Cedex 3
  • contact@elwave.fr
  • tel-icon+33 (0)2 51 85 87 71

INSTITUTE OF MOVEMENT SCIENCES

The Institut des Sciences du Mouvement Etienne-Jules Marey is a Joint Research Unit (UMR 7287), associating Aix-Marseille University and the CNRS through the Institute of Biological Sciences (INSB), the main institute, and three secondary institutes: the Institute of Engineering and Systems Sciences (INSIS); the Institute of Computer Sciences and their Interactions (INS2I) and the Institute of Human and Social Sciences (INSHS).

The institute is located on several sites of Aix-Marseille University, the Luminy campus, the Sainte-Marguerite Hospital, the Timone Hospital, and the IUT site of Aix-en-Provence

RESEARCH TOPICS

The Institute's research themes focus on the mechanical, physiological, neurological, psychological and sociological determinants of the motor skills of living beings, particularly humans.

The Institute's project is to develop interdisciplinarity for the study of Movement, in order to work at the frontiers of disciplinary fields.


Research teams :


Intervention by Stéphane Viollet and Antoine Wystrach at Biomim'expo 2019 to present the robot AntBot :


The portrait page in the Biomim'BOOK 2019 :


Sources / contacts :

UMR 7287 CNRS & Aix-Marseille University
Faculty of Sport Sciences, CP 910
163, av. de Luminy F-13288 Marseille cedex 09 (FRANCE)
Telephone: +33 (0)491 17 22 55
Fax: +33 (0)491 17 22 52
E-mail : ism-com@univ-amu.fr


 


Website

ANTBOT - geolocation without GPS

Her name is Cataglyphis and she's great. She is a desert ant, a navigator who moves without GPS, thanks to a celestial compass because she can "read" light!

Researchers have deciphered its secret and even used it as a bio-inspired tool to develop the AntBot robot, a revolution in future navigation strategies.

Discover this fantastic story inspired by the living with Stéphane Viollet, Director of Research at CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement (ISM-UMR7287) Aix Marseille University, and Antoine Wystrach, Research Fellow at the CNRS, Animal Cognition Research Centre in Toulouse (CNRS) Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III), told at Biomim'expo 2019.


Other videos :


Sources / contacts :

CNRS researcher l Stéphane Viollet // T +33 4 91 82 83 68 // +33 6 34 14 15 94 // stephane.viollet@univamu.fr
Press CNRS l Priscilla Dacher // T +33 1 44 96 46 06 // priscilla.dacher@cnrs.fr


Other releases :

The CNRS press release: The first legged robot that moves without GPS

Science Robotics : AntBot: A six-legged walking robot able to home like desert ants in outdoor environments

Futura Sciences : Meet Antbot, an ant-inspired robot that moves without GPS

Engineering techniques : AntBot: a robot that orientates itself like an ant - Applications to visual navigation without GPS or magnetometer

Rfi : AntBot, ant robot without GPS

The World : AntBot, an autonomous robot inspired by desert ants