A spelunking artifact? Single-rotor self-rotating drone with autonomous navigation, more efficient!

Structure diagram of PULSAR

[Global Network Drone Comprehensive Report] News from the University of Hong Kong, recently, a team led by Dr. Zhang Fu, Assistant Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has recently designed a powered flight without the need for a driver. The radar-sensing drone is called PULSAR. "Pulsars" have multiple functions such as sensing and mapping, just like the scene in the science fiction movie "Prometheus" where humans use spin detectors to build a three-dimensional map of a cave in real time, becoming a reality.

According to reports, the importance of drones is gradually increasing in many fields such as search and rescue, cave exploration, and architectural mapping. Dr. Zhang's team focuses on spin motion. "Pulsars" use powered flight and do not need to drive radar sensing. Because of their spin motion and the scanning mode of the lidar beam, they are intuitively similar to pulsars in astronomy. Named after being very similar. "Pulsar" is equipped with a micro-onboard computer and lidar, enabling completely autonomous perception, mapping, planning and control, without the need for external equipment assistance in either indoor or outdoor environments. A single actuator is used on the pulsar to drive a swashplate-less mechanism that can produce thrust and torque simultaneously.

Dr. Zhang’s team used “Pulsar” to conduct experiments in environmental exploration and multi-directional dynamic obstacle avoidance. The results showed that it can perform autonomous navigation in unknown environments without relying on any external device assistance and Detect static and dynamic obstacles in the environment in real time.

"Pulsar" has the ability to conduct fully automatic navigation at night, indicating that its navigation performance is not limited by light conditions. Additionally, it can handle external wind disturbances. Even if it is disturbed by a maximum wind speed of 4.5 meters per second, the "Pulsar" can still maintain a hovering position within a small range. These features make the aircraft safer and more stable in the wild environment.

The sensor can also increase the field of view through intrinsic spin movement, thereby improving the drone's perception capabilities and mission efficiency, in addition to the above capabilities. There are currently two main methods used to expand the field of view of the sensor, and their common feature is high overall power consumption. One possible approach is to use sensors with a large field of view, such as fisheye lenses, reflective cameras, or 360-degree lidar. However, fisheye cameras and self-reflective cameras often suffer from significant deformation, and the field of view of 360-degree lidar in the vertical direction is still narrow and the resolution is low. Another method is to use multiple sensors simultaneously, such as a multi-camera system or a multi-lidar system. However, multi-sensor systems will bring additional costs and longer data processing time. Similarly, using a gimbal system to expand the field of view will also bring similar problems.

Dr. Zhang’s team found that “Pulsar” can save 26.7% of energy consumption while maintaining good flexibility compared with a quadcopter drone with the same blade area and load. The pulsar's power system uses a single actuator to achieve higher energy conversion efficiency, with an overall efficiency of up to 6.65 grams per watt. With only a propeller with a diameter of only 37.6 cm and a small battery with a capacity of 41 watt hours, this 1234-gram drone achieved a hover time of more than 12 minutes. If the lidar is replaced with larger propellers and batteries, the hover time of the "Pulsar" can be extended to more than 40 minutes.

The research results have been published in Science Robotics. The article is titled "A self-rotating, single-actuated UAV with extended sensor field of view for autonomous navigation" and was published in Science Website home page picture.

Dr. Zhang said that the research platform established by his team is conducive to more in-depth research on spinning drones. “We believe that the establishment of this platform will be conducive to exploring the control methods of drones under high-speed rotation and the control of drones under violent motion.” Localization and mapping (SLAM) technology."

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