Design and Development of an Air–Land Amphibious Inspection Drone for Fusion Reactor
Guodong Qin,
Youzhi Xu,
Wei He,
Qian Qi,
Lei Zheng,
Haimin Hu,
Yong Cheng,
Congju Zuo,
Deyang Zhang,
Aihong Ji
Affiliations
Guodong Qin
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
Youzhi Xu
Lab of Locomotion Bioinspiration and Intelligent Robots, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Wei He
Lab of Locomotion Bioinspiration and Intelligent Robots, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Qian Qi
Lab of Locomotion Bioinspiration and Intelligent Robots, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Lei Zheng
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
Haimin Hu
Department of Information Engineering, PLA Army Academy of Artillery and Air Defense, Hefei 230031, China
Yong Cheng
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
Congju Zuo
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
Deyang Zhang
Zhengzhou Campus, PLA Army Academy of Artillery and Air Defense, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Aihong Ji
Lab of Locomotion Bioinspiration and Intelligent Robots, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
This paper proposes a design method for a miniature air–land amphibious inspection drone (AAID) to be used in the latest compact fusion reactor discharge gap observation mission. Utilizing the amphibious function, the AAID realizes the function of crawling transportation in the narrow maintenance channel and flying observation inside the fusion reactor. To realize miniaturization, the mobile platform adopts the bionic cockroach wheel-legged system to improve the obstacle-crossing ability. The flight platform adopts an integrated rotor structure with frame and control to reduce the overall weight of the AAID. Based on the AAID dynamic model and the optimal control method, the control strategies under flight mode, hover mode and fly–crawl transition are designed, respectively. Finally, the prototype of the AAID is established, and the crawling, hovering, and fly–crawling transition control experiments are carried out, respectively. The test results show that the maximum crawling inclination of the AAID is more than 20°. The roll angle, pitch angle, and yaw angle deviation of the AAID during hovering are all less than 2°. The landing success rate of the AAID during the fly–crawl transition phase also exceeded 77%, proving the effectiveness of the structural design and dynamic control strategy.
