Development of Downsized LASDRA with 2-DoF Joint Locking Device

Aerial manipulation with a multi-rotor drone and manipulator systems or omni -directional drones has critical barriers such as limited flight time, insufficient payload, and inaccurate onboard sensing and control. To overcome these limitations, the Large-size Aerial Skeleton with Distributed Rotor Actuation (LASDRA) was proposed in previous research [1]. In this paper, we develop a downsized LASDRA with a novel joint locking device. The developed downsized LASDRA with joint locking device can work in narrower spaces with more DoF and generates a bigger operational force by joint locking. The joint locking device employs a capstan brake and latch mechanism to generate large locking torques with a small form factor. As an experimental result, the payload of a 3-link downsized LASDRA increased from 0.4 kg to 1.2 kg with joint locking, while the length of each link decreased from 1 m to 0.76 m.