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US-12623796-B2 - Hybrid flying driving robot with a clutch mechanism for energy efficiency

US12623796B2US 12623796 B2US12623796 B2US 12623796B2US-12623796-B2

Abstract

The present invention relates to a hybrid flying and driving robot comprising a plurality of wheels; a plurality of propellers; a plurality of motors, each of which is configured to drive the rotation of a respective wheel of said plurality of wheels; wherein each respective motor of said plurality of motors is connected to a respective propeller of said plurality of propellers by means of a respective gear arrangement; wherein each respective gear arrangement is rearrangeable between two configurations: a) a first configuration wherein the respective motor is configured to drive the rotation of the respective propeller; b) a second configuration wherein the respective motor does not drive the rotation of the respective propeller.

Inventors

  • DAVID ZARROUK
  • Eran GEFEN

Assignees

  • B.G. NEGEV TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS LTD., AT BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20230402
Priority Date
20220403

Claims (14)

  1. 1 . A hybrid flying and driving robot comprising: a plurality of wheels; a plurality of propellers; and a plurality of motors, each of which is configured to drive the rotation of a respective wheel of said plurality of wheels; wherein each respective motor of said plurality of motors is connected to a respective propeller of said plurality of propellers by means of a respective gear arrangement; wherein each respective gear arrangement is rearrangeable between two configurations: a) a first configuration wherein the respective motor is configured to drive the rotation of the respective propeller; and b) a second configuration wherein the respective motor does not drive the rotation of the respective propeller; and wherein each of the respective gear arrangements comprises: a bottom crown gear, wherein the respective motor is configured to drive the rotation of said bottom crown gear; a displaceable upper crown gear meshable with said bottom crown gear; a shaft fixedly connected to the center of the respective propeller at one end and fixedly connected to the center of the upper crown gear at an other end of said shaft; wherein in the first configuration the upper crown gear is placed in a position such that the upper crown gear meshes with the bottom crown gear; and wherein in the second configuration the upper crown gear is placed in a position away from the bottom crown gear such that the upper crown gear does not mesh with the bottom crown gear.
  2. 2 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 1 , wherein said robot comprises four wheels of the plurality of wheels, four propellers of the plurality of propellors, and four motors of the plurality of motors.
  3. 3 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 1 , wherein said robot comprises a displaceable surface above the upper crown gear; wherein the upper crown gear is fixedly attached to said displaceable surface; wherein said displaceable surface is configured to be pushed down by a fork element and configured to be pushed up by an elastic element.
  4. 4 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 3 , wherein the elastic element is placed between the bottom of the displaceable surface and a respective surface; wherein the fork element comprises a slanted sloping bottom surface; wherein the displaceable surface comprises a ramp on said displaceable surface top; and wherein the slanted sloping bottom surface is engageable with the ramp such that when engaged: a) the displaceable surface moves vertically downwards when the slanted sloping bottom surface moves towards a high end of the ramp; and b) the displaceable surface moves vertically upwards by means of the elastic element, when the slanted sloping bottom surface moves away from the high end of the ramp.
  5. 5 . A hybrid flying and driving robot comprising: a plurality of wheels; a plurality of propellers; a plurality of motors, each of which is configured to drive the rotation of a respective wheel of said plurality of wheels; wherein each respective motor of said plurality of motors is connected to a respective propeller of said plurality of propellers by means of a respective gear arrangement; wherein each respective gear arrangement is rearrangeable between two configurations: a) a first configuration wherein the respective motor is configured to drive the rotation of the respective propeller; and b) a second configuration wherein the respective motor does not drive the rotation of the respective propeller; wherein said robot comprises four wheels, four propellers and four motors; wherein the robot comprises: a main body portion; two side arms, each connected to a side of said main body portion; two legs connected to each of the side arms; wherein each leg comprises: a respective motor of the motors; a respective wheel of the wheels, connected at the bottom of the leg; a respective propeller of the propellers, connected at the top of the leg; wherein the two side arms are rotatable relative to the main body portion to define a variable sprawl angle; and wherein the gear arrangement is mechanically linked to the two side arms such that rotation of the two side arms actuates the gear arrangement to transition between the first configuration and the second configuration.
  6. 6 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 5 , wherein each of the two side arms is rotatable around an axis in a fore-aft direction of the robot.
  7. 7 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 6 , wherein said robot comprises a sprawl motor connected to the main body portion, configured to rotate the two side arms around the axes.
  8. 8 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 7 , wherein said robot comprises two arm rods, each connected between a respective side arm and the sprawl motor, such that the spawl motor is configured to displace each arm rod in a direction substantially perpendicular to the fore-aft direction of said robot, thereby causing the rotation of the two side arms.
  9. 9 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 8 , wherein each side arm comprises a vertical surface protruding upwards therefrom; and wherein the arm rod is connected to said vertical surface.
  10. 10 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 8 , wherein each of the respective gear arrangements comprises: a bottom crown gear wherein the respective motor is configured to drive the rotation of said bottom crown gear; a displaceable upper crown gear meshable with said bottom crown gear; a shaft fixedly connected to the center of the respective propeller at one end and fixedly connected to the center of the upper crown gear at an other end of said shaft; and a fork element; wherein in the first configuration the upper crown gear is placed in a position such that the upper crown gear meshes with the bottom crown gear; wherein in the second configuration the upper crown gear is placed in a position away from the bottom crown gear such that the upper crown gear does not mesh with the bottom crown gear; wherein said robot comprises a displaceable surface above the upper crown gear; wherein the upper crown gear is fixedly attached to said displaceable surface; wherein said displaceable surface is configured to be pushed down by the fork element and configured to be pushed up by an elastic element; wherein the elastic element is placed between the bottom of the displaceable surface and a respective surface; wherein the fork element comprises a slanted sloping bottom surface; wherein the displaceable surface comprises a ramp on its-said displaceable surface top; wherein the slanted sloping bottom surface is engageable with the ramp such that when engaged: a) the displaceable surface moves vertically downwards when the slanted sloping bottom surface moves towards a high end of the ramp; and b) the displaceable surface moves vertically upwards by means of the elastic element, when the slanted sloping bottom surface moves away from the high end of the ramp; and wherein said robot comprises four leg rods, each connecting between the main body portion and a respective fork element of the fork elements, such that said leg rods enable the fork elements to move in a direction substantially perpendicular to the fore-aft direction when the two side arms are rotated.
  11. 11 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 5 , wherein the main body portion comprises a top surface and a bottom surface wherein objects are configured to be placed therebetween.
  12. 12 . A hybrid flying and driving robot comprising: a plurality of clutch mechanisms, each of which clutch mechanism comprises: a motor; a wheel, wherein the motor is configured to drive the rotation of said wheel; a bottom crown gear wherein said motor is configured to drive the rotation of said bottom crown gear; a displaceable upper crown gear meshable with said bottom crown gear; wherein in a first configuration the upper crown gear is placed in a position such that the upper crown gear meshes with the bottom crown gear; and wherein in a second configuration the upper crown gear is placed in a position away from the bottom crown gear such that the upper crown gear does not mesh with the bottom crown gear; a shaft fixedly connected to a propeller at one end and fixedly connected to the center of the upper crown gear at an other end of said shaft; and a displaceable surface above the upper crown gear; wherein the upper crown gear is fixedly attached to said displaceable surface; wherein said displaceable surface is configured to be pushed down by a fork element and configured to be pushed up by an elastic element; wherein the elastic element is placed between the bottom of the displaceable surface and a respective surface; wherein the fork element comprises a slanted sloping bottom surface; wherein the displaceable surface comprises a ramp on said displaceable surface top; and wherein the slanted sloping bottom surface is engageable with the ramp such that when engaged: a) the displaceable surface moves vertically downwards when the slanted sloping bottom surface moves towards the high end of the ramp; and b) the displaceable surface moves vertically upwards by means of the elastic element, when the slanted sloping bottom surface moves away from the high end of the ramp.
  13. 13 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 12 , wherein in each clutch mechanism, the wheel is positioned according to one of the following: a. perpendicularly to the propeller; b. parallel to the propeller; c. having an acute angle between said wheel and propeller.
  14. 14 . The hybrid flying and driving robot according to claim 12 , further comprising a pushing and pulling motor; wherein said pushing and pulling motor is connected to each clutch mechanism fork element by means of a rod; and wherein said pushing and pulling motor is configured to displace each clutch mechanism fork element towards and away from a respective ramp of the ramps respective ramp.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is the U.S. national phase of International Application No. PCT/IL2023/050342 filed Apr. 2, 2023 which designated the U.S. and claims priority to IL 291912 filed Apr. 3, 2022, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the field robotics. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mechanical Flying-driving robot with a sprawl mechanism in conjunction with a mechanical clutch mechanism for energy efficiency. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Multiple miniature crawling robots designed to operate in unstructured environments for search and rescue, excavation, surveillance, security, and reconnaissance missions have been developed in the last few decades. Their small size, low weight and high maneuverability enable their deployment in large numbers, independently or in swarms, to scan large areas. Considerable efforts have been made to reduce their size and energy consumption while increasing their speed. Some studies report exceptional locomotion performance, jumping, dynamic maneuvers, and running at speeds of up to 15 body lengths per second. Examples of crawling robots include: The original STAR—D. Zarrouk, A. Pullin, N. J. Kohut, and R. S. Fearing, “STAR—Sprawl Tuned Autonomous Robot,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 20-25, 2013.The reconfigurable RSTAR—D. Zarrouk, and L. Yeheskel, “Rising STAR, a highly reconfigurable sprawl tuned autonomous robot,” IEEE, Robotics and Automation Letters. vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 1888-1895, 2014.The Amphibious amphiSTAR—A. Cohen, and D. Zarrouk, “The AmphiSTAR high speed amphibious sprawl tuned robot, design and Experiments,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 6411-6418, 2020.WO 2019130303—Robot maneuverable by combined sprawl and four-bar extension mechanisms. These 3D-printed wheeled robots, reconfigure their mechanics to engage in different terrains. To overcome obstacles, multiple hybrid driving-flying robots have been developed: The flying-driving FSTAR—N. Meiri, and D. Zarrouk, “Flying STAR, a hybrid crawling and flying sprawl tuned robot,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 5302-5308, 2019.The hybrid flying anc climbing FCSTAR—N. Ben David and D. Zarrouk, “Design and Analysis of FCSTAR, a Hybrid Flying and Climbing Sprawl Tuned Robot,” IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 6188-6195, 2021. Most robots rely on active propellers to enable their movement. For the following publications, the ground movement implements with a rolling cage-like frame or wheels that enable impressive maneuverability when rolling on the ground or climbing up walls: A. Kalantari and M. Spenko, “Design and experimental validation of HyTAQ, a Hybrid Terrestrial and Aerial Quadrotor,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, pp. 4445-4450, 2013.M. Yamada, M. Nakao, Y. Hada and N. Sawasaki, “Development and field test of novel two-wheeled UAV for bridge inspections,” 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), pp. 1014-1021, 2017. The publication—K. Tanaka et al., “A design of a small mobile robot with a hybrid locomotion mechanism of wheels and multi-rotors,” IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, pp. 1503-1508 2017—teaches of a developed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) with separate motors for wheels placed on each side of the drone. The publication—C. J. Salaan, K. Tadakuma, Y. Okada, Y. Sakai, K. Ohno, and S. Tadokoro, “Development and experimental validation of aerial vehicle with passive rotating shell on each rotor,” IEEE, Robotics and Automation Letters. vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 2568-2575, 2019—describes a UAV with a passive rotating shell on each rotor that not only enables it to roll on the ground or a roof, but also move along a vertical wall. The publication—J. R. Page, P. E. I. Pounds, “The Quadroller: Modeling of a UAV/UGV hybrid quadrotor,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 4834-4841, 2014—teaches of a developed flying drone that uses a unique design with entirely passive wheels for terrestrial locomotion. The publications: Y. Mulgaonkar, B. Araki, J. S. Koh, L. Guerrero-Bonilla, D. M. Aukes, A. Makineni, V. Kumar, “The flying monkey: A mesoscale robot that can run, fly, and grasp,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 4672-4679, 2016. andB. Araki, J. Strang, S. Pohorecky, C. Qiu, T. Naegeli, and D. Rus, “Multi-robot path planning for a swarm of robots that can both fly and drive,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 5575-5582, 2017. introduced the Flying Monkey, which relies on both actuated wheels, and/or a crawling leg mechanism. The publication—S. Mintchev, D. Floreano, “A multi-modal hovering and terrestrial robot with adaptive morphology,” in Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Aerial Robotics (No. CONF), 2018—presented a reconfigurable drone that can