Drone with Pneumatic-tethered Suction-based Perching Mechanism for High Payload Application

Concrete infrastructures provide the means to connect cities and transport people and goods. They require regular inspection to assess their current conditions. Aerial work platforms and underbridge platforms or scaffolding are the common equipment used for inspection of elevated infrastructure. These methods often cost more to operate and maintain, are time-consuming, and raise risks for the inspector. One interesting field of research for UAVs that can be used for infrastructure inspection is aerial perching. A perching UAV can be loaded with an inspection apparatus foregoing the need for costly equipment and risks involved in the inspection. Many have presented aerial perching for various applications and not as much for applications related to concrete infrastructure inspection. This study investigates a perching UAV that can perform perching on both smooth and rough concrete surfaces. This paper presents an unmanned aerial system that utilizes a suction-based perching mechanism with a pneumatic supply tethered from the ground. The proposed perching mechanism provides a reliable and high payload capacity needed for non-destructive testing of the infrastructure. The paper introduces the concept, presents the design and proof of concept, and validates the idea through actual bridge experiments.