muFly

Project Summary

Despite the many impressive examples of human inventiveness, our technological solutions often pale in comparison with the elegance, effectiveness, power efficiency and supreme functionality with which nature has solved so many problems. This is particularly true for the flight of birds: No comparable technical solution of a small, autonomously flying vehicle has yet been demonstrated, despite the many potential applications in surveillance and security, search and rescue missions, inspection, exploration, law enforcement, etc. It is typical for these applications that they require
complete autonomy, navigation independently of the structure of the environment, small size of the vehicle to access also confined indoor spaces and ultra-low power consumption for extended operation times.

Autonomous micro flying robots combine a large variety of technological challenges and are therefore an excellent showcase for leading edge micro/nano technologies and their integration with information technology towards a fully operational intelligent micro-system. This project proposes, therefore, the development and implementation of the first fully autonomous micro helicopter comparable in size
and weight to a small bird. The key challenges of the project include innovative concepts for power sources, sensors, actuators, navigation and helicopter design and their integration into a very compact system. The envisaged fully autonomous micro-helicopter will weight less than 30g and measure only 10cm in diameter. The project shall develop and demonstrate innovative approaches and technologies in:

(1) system level design and optimization of autonomous micro aerial vehicles,

(2) multifunctional use of components (integration of camera and distance sensor, batteries doubling as structural elements, or a propeller used for gyroscopic stabilization),

(3) design of “smart” miniature inertial sensors and omnidirectional vision sensors with polar pixel arrangement,

(4) miniaturized fuel-cells,

(5) miniaturized piezoelectric actuators with enhanced power to weight ratios, and

(6) control and navigation concepts that can cope with limited sensor and processing performance. The final system is expected to find applications in surveillance of buildings and large indoor areas that are difficult to access on wheels or legs, rescue missions in buildings after natural disasters or terror attacks, surveillance of dangerous areas, chemical and nuclear plants or law enforcement in public areas. The resulting micro-helicopter will represent the first demonstration of a fully autonomous indoor flying robot of its size and its successful realization will be a landmark achievement in integrated micro/nano technology and micro aerial vehicles.