Aerial Manipulator for Contact Inspection Selected for Innovation Prize
Posted: 2017-10-6
By:
Anibal Ollero
The European project AEROARMS is one of 10 innovations selected to compete for the Innovation Radar Prize in the "Industrial & Enabling Tech" category. AEROARMS is a European project that proposes to develop the first UAV robotic system with multiple arms and advanced manipulation capabilities for industrial inspection and maintenance.
The selected innovation is a torque-free contact device for integration into multi-rotor platforms.
This technology was developed by CATEC research center, within the AEROARMS project.
It enables drones to perform inspections that require contact, like ultrasonic. This is a major step for drones to not only "see" from the air but also "touch and feel". The drone presents a tilted-rotor configuration that allows very precise movements and a contact device that decouples and dampens external perturbations (wind, external forces while touching) from the aerial platform.
