The LARZA system features a new electromagnetic zipping technique to achieve wing motion. (Image Credit: University of Bristol/Tim Helps)
Without relying on traditional motors and gears, researchers at the University of Bristol developed a drive system, called the Liquid-amplified zipping actuator (LARZA), for flapping-wing autonomous robots. The bee and flying insect-inspired system utilizes a new electromechanical zipping technique to achieve wing motion. LARZA could lead to smaller, lightweight micro flying robots with improved efficiency that can be deployed for search and rescue, dangerous environments, and environmental monitoring.
Past micro robot projects normally feature complicated transmission systems, motors, and gears that provide wings with up and down motion capabilities. However, such an implementation added weight, complexity, and unwanted dynamic effects to the robot.
The team demonstrated how two LAZA- powered flapping wings supply more power compared to similarly weighted insect muscles. As a result, the system allows robots to take flight across a room at eighteen body lengths per second. In addition, LAZA performs consistent flapping motion for over a million cycles, allowing robots to fly longer than before.
The team also says their system can be used as a starting point toward developing autonomous insect-like flying robots.
Dr. Tim Helps, lead author and developer of the LAZA system, said: “With the LAZA, we apply electrostatic forces directly on the wing, rather than through a complex, inefficient transmission system. This leads to better performance, simpler design, and will unlock a new class of low-cost, lightweight flapping micro-air vehicles for future applications, like autonomous inspection of offshore wind turbines.”
Professor Rossiter added: “Making smaller and better performing flapping-wing microrobots is a huge challenge. LAZA is an important step toward autonomous flying robots that could be as small as insects and perform environmentally critical tasks such as plant pollination and exciting emerging roles such as finding people in collapsed buildings.”
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