Tokyo University researchers magnify drone power by connecting multiple UAVs

Researchers at the University of Tokyo are working on ways to boost the task-performing brawn of drones without undermining the accessibility advantages that come with their smaller size, and now say they may have a solution by coupling devices once they’ve reached job sites to combine their power.

The challenge that University of Tokyo experts set themselves was to preserve the mobility drones need to navigate tight spaces in order to reach or operate in certain workspaces, yet still provide them augmented muscle to perform physical tasks once there. Thus far, the common approach to the latter has been to increase motor (and, by extension) battery power, which tends to bloat UAV size, and thus conflict with access limitations.

Read: MIT automated drone trajectory tech posts 100% collision-free trial results

To work around that, the organization’s lab wonks came up with a jigsaw strategy that would permit individual “pieces” to fly where they are required, then connect into a larger puzzle that can leverage their assembled strength to perform physical tasks when and where sought.

The approach hinges on a tailor-made device that the University of Tokyo research team came up with that allows drones to securely link up long enough to see their chore through. The unit’s design and use of remotely controlled magnets facilitates connection in hovering mode, and then ensures a solid grip UAVs need to execute their work. 

The result was the rather unwieldly named Tilted-Rotor-Equipped Aerial Robot With Autonomous In-Flight Assembly and Disassembly Ability (TRADY), which for testing purposes was limited to use on just two drones, but is expandable to several.

University of Tokyo researchers behind the innovation say the combined power of just two UAVs increased the torque of a single unit by nine times as they performed the test’s two tasks: lifting and inserting a rod into a pipe, and turning a mains vale on and off.

“The TRADY unit can self-assemble/disassemble with another unit in mid-air, adjusting the aircraft’s control freedom by switching between under-actuated and fully-actuated control models,” the results of the University of Tokyo experiment note. “The system implementation involves a docking mechanism design, optimized rotor configuration, as well as a control system with the ability to switch between under-actuated and fully-actuated controllers… Through experiments, TRADY demonstrated a 90 % success rate in executing assembly/disassembly motions, and in the assembly state, (and) it can utilize full-pose tracking and generate over nine times the torque of a single unit.”

Read: Draganfly’s drone test center to focus first on Ukraine de-mining activity

It may all sound like pretty dry stuff, but the implications for magnifying individual drone strength through combination for limited-access industrial, construction, or other heavy effort purposes could be huge. Meanwhile, for UAV and lab trial fans whose minds are also prone to childish associative wandering (guilty), the demonstration video includes imagery likely to goad Beavis and Butthead-sqeue tittering.