Soft Whole Body Perching Drone

Tasks performed:

• Researched the possible actuator design that can help bending the arms of the drone upon insertion of the compressed air

• The design of the pneumatic actuator was inspired from the past designs of the soft robots serving application in wearable assistive devices.

• Prepared the bill of materials for the fabrics and equipment to be used for the manufacturing of the pneumatic actuator arms

• Prepared a step by step manual for preparing the pneumatic arms using the nylon , spandex and TPU fabric.

• Various iterations was performed on the number of seam layers, length of the pressure pocket , distance between two seam layer and the radius of the pressure pocket. This is important to achieve the required 270 degree rotation and safety of the pneumatic arms under high pressure.

• Trade study was performed on the type of elastic fabric used based on their durometer scale as this fabric would be under high pressure when the arms are pressurized with compressed air.

• Designed the holders to help integrate the propellers on the pneumatic arms.

• Performed pressure test on the pneumatic arm to get details on the bending achieved, maximum allowed pressure and identify the best possible design for the pneumatic actuator pressure pocket.

Lessons Learned:

• Learned different sewing methods to prepare pressure pockets(pneumatic actuators) to be used for various applications like bending, twisting, and both

• Learned operating heat seal for sealing the elastic fabric to the TPU .

• Learned laser printing the seam layers from the nylon fabric and got knowledge on the equipment setup .