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Bio‐Inspired Large‐Area Soft Sensing Skins to Measure UAV Wing Deformation in Flight
Author(s) -
Shin HeeSup,
Ott Zachary,
Beuken Leopold G.,
Ranganathan Badri N.,
Humbert J. Sean,
Bergbreiter Sarah
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.202100679
Subject(s) - soft robotics , modular design , robustness (evolution) , computer science , soft sensor , wing , robot , materials science , aerospace engineering , artificial intelligence , process (computing) , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , operating system
Abstract Biological organisms demonstrate remarkable agility in complex environments, especially in comparison to engineered robotic systems. In part, this is due to an organism's ability to detect disturbances and react to them quickly. To address the challenge of quickly sensing these same disturbances in robotic systems, this study proposes and demonstrates large‐area soft sensing skins designed to sense disturbances on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in flight. These skins are enabled by high‐resolution soft strain sensors embedded into a large‐area skin through a modular molding process that spans feature sizes from tens of microns to 0.675 m. The electronics of the sensing system enable the soft skins to be sampled fast enough to capture dynamic loads on a wing. Overall, the large‐area soft sensing skin demonstrates high sensitivity, mechanical robustness, and consistent sensor readings across static and dynamic tests. The use of the soft sensing skin during UAV flight demonstrates that the sensing skin can capture relevant flight dynamics on small UAVs. These results pave the way to large‐area soft sensing skins for fast and robust control of a wide variety of robotic systems.