Dynamic Modeling and Analysis of Impact-resilient MAVs Undergoing High-speed and Large-angle Collisions with the Environment

TL;DR

This paper investigates how adding passive springs to MAV arms improves their impact resilience during high-speed, large-angle collisions, offering a promising alternative to traditional protective cages.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamic model for impact-resilient MAVs with compliant arms and demonstrates their enhanced resilience through extensive collision testing and comparison with rigid MAVs.

Findings

Passive springs increase impact resilience of MAVs.

Compliant MAVs recover stability faster after collisions.

Tradeoffs between impact resilience and flight performance are analyzed.

Abstract

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) often face a high risk of collision during autonomous flight, particularly in cluttered and unstructured environments. To mitigate the collision impact on sensitive onboard devices, resilient MAVs with mechanical protective cages and reinforced frames are commonly used. However, compliant and impact-resilient MAVs offer a promising alternative by reducing the potential damage caused by impacts. In this study, we present novel findings on the impact-resilient capabilities of MAVs equipped with passive springs in their compliant arms. We analyze the effect of compliance through dynamic modeling and demonstrate that the inclusion of passive springs enhances impact resilience. The impact resilience is extensively tested to stabilize the MAV following wall collisions under high-speed and large-angle conditions. Additionally, we provide comprehensive comparisons with rigid MAVs to better determine the tradeoffs in flight by embedding compliance onto the robot's frame.