ETD

Archivio digitale delle tesi discusse presso l'Università di Pisa

Tesi etd-04062020-162231


Tipo di tesi
Tesi di laurea magistrale
Autore
GUARINO, LUCA
URN
etd-04062020-162231
Titolo
Fixed-wing perching
Dipartimento
INGEGNERIA CIVILE E INDUSTRIALE
Corso di studi
INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE
Relatori
relatore Prof. Frendo, Francesco
Parole chiave
  • drone
  • fixed-wing
  • perching
  • inspection
  • gripper
  • passive
  • impact
  • UAV
Data inizio appello
28/04/2020
Consultabilità
Non consultabile
Data di rilascio
28/04/2090
Riassunto
The use of UAVs for industrial applications, such as surveillance, and inspection of remote buildings or other large structures, has evolved considerably in recent years. Since both favorable aerodynamic effects and efficient energy conversion diminish with scale, the utility of UAVs can be much improved and their mission extended if they collect data at lower energetic cost by perching.
This project aims to design a drone for power-lines inspection, combining the advantages of a fixed-wing drone – i.e. greater flight range and higher payload at the same power output than a multi-rotor – and a mechanical device that allows perching without the use of a difficult-to-control maneuver to bleed off kinetic energy before perching.
The solution presented here consists of a passive, three-fingered, tendon-driven gripper connected to an energy-absorbing structure that can be used to perch and then later detach from a power-line cable. The mechanism is designed to leverage the impact energy to close the gripper and store enough energy to reopen it afterward using a lightweight (9.9 g) servomotor only.
Analysis of mechanism behavior is presented and experimental tests were performed to characterize both the gripper and the absorbent structure. After the integration with the drone, a mock perching test demonstrated the feasibility of the concept.
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