The Flying Exoskeleton
The flying exoskeleton. Isn't it beautiful? It's technology at its best: enhancing the autonomy and power of its user while looking extremely cool. What it does: it lets you fly like a bird.
The system has three main components. The first is a powered exoskeleton worn by the pilot. It serves as an input device to tell the second component, the robotic wings, what they are supposed to do. This is necessary for several reasons. First of all, exoskeletons are just so #%*@ing cyber punk! Secondly humans are too weak to flap wings of proper size just by muscle power. That's why we let the robot wings do the heavy lifting and just guide it with the arms and ankles.
Thirdly, it is necessary to get some feedback on what's happening on the wings, so the pilot can properly "learn to fly". That's why the exoskeleton is powered. Exoskeleton and wings form a "master-slave" pair of a bilateral teleoperation system. These systems are well known since the 1950s and are nowadays used on standard basis, for instance in the da Vinci robot. The awesome thing of well designed teleoperation systems is that the operator gets a sense of "transparency". In our case this means, the pilot feels as if his arms actually ARE the wings!
Exoskeleton and wings are joined via the third component, the backpack. This contains all the necessary things like batteries, electronics, main actuators, flight control computers, and such.
Thirdly, it is necessary to get some feedback on what's happening on the wings, so the pilot can properly "learn to fly". That's why the exoskeleton is powered. Exoskeleton and wings form a "master-slave" pair of a bilateral teleoperation system. These systems are well known since the 1950s and are nowadays used on standard basis, for instance in the da Vinci robot. The awesome thing of well designed teleoperation systems is that the operator gets a sense of "transparency". In our case this means, the pilot feels as if his arms actually ARE the wings!
Exoskeleton and wings are joined via the third component, the backpack. This contains all the necessary things like batteries, electronics, main actuators, flight control computers, and such.
Specs:
- Crew: 1 pilot
- Velocity: 30 - 120 km/h
- Flight Time (no thermals, full power): 20 min
- Corresponding Range: ~20 km
- Wingspan: 8 - 12 m (full extended)
- Wing Area: 12 - 15 m²
- Wingsweep: adaptable
- Lift-to-Drag Ratio: 10
- MTOW: 140 kg
- Power: 20 kWp
The Exoskeleton
The exoskeleton will look similar to a futuristic armor. It is a modular structure adjustable to the pilot's sizes. It has several purposes. For one it detects the motions of the pilot via e.g. hall-effect sensors in the joints, generating the input signal for the flight control computer. Once aerodynamic forces on the wings develop, the exoskeleton feeds them back to the pilot in a scaled down version via electromotors and wire-tendons. This system can also be used to hold the arms and legs in a stretched out position, as that would otherwise become very hard after a while.
While in the air, the wind can get quite chilly, so the exoskeleton serves also as thermal protection. And lastly, in case of failure, it can contain safety mechanisms like a neck stabilizer, impact protection, and quick-release parachute.
The headpiece is meant to include a head-up display (HUD), so the pilot gets telemetry and can visually control all aspects of the flying exoskeleton configuration via finger motions.
As exoskeletons are platform technology for the interaction with the digital world, the interface shall be standardised, so the device can be used for the plethora of other applications conceivable.
While in the air, the wind can get quite chilly, so the exoskeleton serves also as thermal protection. And lastly, in case of failure, it can contain safety mechanisms like a neck stabilizer, impact protection, and quick-release parachute.
The headpiece is meant to include a head-up display (HUD), so the pilot gets telemetry and can visually control all aspects of the flying exoskeleton configuration via finger motions.
As exoskeletons are platform technology for the interaction with the digital world, the interface shall be standardised, so the device can be used for the plethora of other applications conceivable.
The Wings
The wings will have an internal structure with seven degrees of freedom ("movement possibilities") similar to that of a bird's wing and our own arms. We will start with the same degrees of freedom as our sub-scale prototype, which can flap the wings and has all-moving outer wing sections (similar to stabilators). The tail has elevator and rudder functions, but is realized differently to an airplane. Just like with birds, the tail can "bob", as well as rotate around its length.
Wing loading (read "weight") is a critical factor, so the structure will be made of carbon fibre with additions of titanium and aluminium parts where necessary. There will be force and position sensors (e.g. strain-gauges, potentiometers) to get the feedback signal for the exoskeleton. As actuators we consider mostly brushless DC motors with gears or winches, but it's also possible to do the force intensive flapping with compact and fast hydraulics for power. There will be particular designs in place to bring the wings into a safe gliding position if anything should go wrong.
Wing loading (read "weight") is a critical factor, so the structure will be made of carbon fibre with additions of titanium and aluminium parts where necessary. There will be force and position sensors (e.g. strain-gauges, potentiometers) to get the feedback signal for the exoskeleton. As actuators we consider mostly brushless DC motors with gears or winches, but it's also possible to do the force intensive flapping with compact and fast hydraulics for power. There will be particular designs in place to bring the wings into a safe gliding position if anything should go wrong.
The Future
The future is still unwritten. But one can think of people commuting with the flying exoskeleton, or crossing a valley without having to visit the bottom. It might be used for circus and cinema, for tournament, for mountain rescue, or simply to go play with the clouds. What would you do with it? Tell us!
The big advantages of this system are low noise, high efficiency and agility, and vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) capability. It also is much less prone to get damaged, when the wings hit an obstacle, compared with a helicopter. It might change, how we perceive movement in (and out of) cities and what obstacles like valleys and mountains mean.
But I'm not gonna lie to you, it will be tough to make this happen. It takes about 6.2 million dollars over 5 years to design and build the real thing (time of engineers is expensive..). Who will give us the money to do that? Then, it is quite a challenge in itself to design and build something never before seen upon the face of the earth. We will need great people with open and creative minds to accomplish that job. But despite these challenges we are hopeful, because human collaboration can acheive awesome things, and this job can certainly be done. So cheer for us!