ORBICOMB: ORBITAL HONEYCOMB METAMATERIAL BASED SHELL FOR COLLISION-RESILIENT TACTILE DRONES.

Abstract

Current drones face considerable challenges regarding safety and robustness, especially when operating near humans, or flying in cluttered and dangerous environments. Attempts to scale up into multi-agent systems further complicate the successful integration into the real world. Traditional approaches to mitigating these issues often involve developing complex and computationally intensive obstacle avoidance systems or designing strong protective cages. This paper presents an alternative framework for designing an adjustable and reconfigurable metamaterial drone shell capable of absorbing the shock and using tactile feedback for simpler control. The design incorporates a negative stiffness honeycomb structure placed in several orbits to handle different forces. Integrated within each orbit are triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) sensors that detect collisions based on binary contact signals. Our experiments demonstrate that each orbit’s honeycombs achieve different buckling and shock absorption levels, allowing sensing for both the direction and the depth of external force impact. The system enhances drone safety and introduces a novel approach to sensing and control, reducing the need for extra computational power and complex equipment.