Watch live from the International Space Station as JPL’s OPALS lasercomm instrument is unpacked from the Dragon spacecraft by a robotic arm.
OPALS, the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, is a technology demonstration that will beam HD video from space to Earth via laser light.
: OPALS will demonstrate optical communication by transferring a video from our payload on the International Space Station (ISS) to our ground receiver at JPL’s Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) in Wrightwood, California. As the ISS travels across the sky, a laser beacon will be transmitted from the ground telescope to our payload and tracked. While maintaining lock on the uplink beacon using a closed loop control system and a two-axis gimbal, the OPALS flight system will downlink a modulated laser beam with a formatted video. Each demonstration lasts for approximately 100 seconds as the ISS payload and ground telescope maintain line of sight.
Does it have large blue eyes? Check. Are there four wings? Check. Does it have a long, shiny tail? Check.
Yep, the object before me appears to be a dragonfly. The only thing that gives the game away is the size. With a length of 44 centimeters, a wingspan of 63 cm and a weight of 175 grams, this is far bigger than any dragonfly I’ve seen before.
I had come to Esslingen, a town close to Stuttgart in southwest Germany. This is the base of Festo, the company behind the dragonfly-shaped robot known as the “BionicOpter,” a name coined by combining the words “bionic” and “helicopter.”
“OK, let’s give it a spin,” Heinrich Frontzek, the 56-year-old in charge of the development, shouts over to his engineer. On cue, the motor starts making a humming sound and the wings start to flap. Then it happens: The BionicOpter takes off from the engineer’s hand. For 30 magical seconds it flies freely around the large open glass-paneled room before returning to land back where it started.
Festo’s main line of business is the automation and streamlining of factory operations. It was founded in 1925 and now has regional offices in 61 countries, including Japan. It also has over 300,000 customers in 176 nations. In the 1990s, it adopted the concept “learning from nature” as one of the pillars of its research. Living creatures have developed the optimal capabilities to thrive in their natural environment. By studying such creatures, Festo believes, for example, it can learn how to better combine numerous complex functions, or how to improve energy efficiency.
But why dragonflies? In 2006, Festo set up the Bionic Learning Network with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several other entities. It has since done research on fish fins, jellyfish propulsion and how penguins swim, among other things. Researchers then replicated what they had learned in robots.
In 2011, the Network created a flying “SmartBird” modeled on a herring gull. This yielded increased knowledge about the mechanisms governing two-winged flight. The Network then decided to try working with four wings, hence the dragonfly.
Unlike birds, dragonflies can execute sharp mid-air turns, hover and even fly backward.
“A dragonfly is trained to catch flies in the air. It eats between 200 and 250 flies per day, so it is optimized for this job,” explains Frontzek.
The reason a dragonfly can fly the way it does is because each of its four wings can move separately. To replicate these movements, nine small servo motors are used to operate the BionicOpter’s wings. The wing speed and angle, meanwhile, are controlled using sensors and ARM microcontroller. These are all crammed into a small space behind the ribcage. The robot is then operated using a smartphone.
It took 18 months before the BionicOpter could fly through the air like its real-life counterpart. The process was facilitated by the new technology known as 3D printing, which enabled the team to create complex parts more easily. “We assembled during the daytime and tested. If we had failures, we could redesign the parts and print them overnight using a 3D printer,” says Frontzek looking back.
When the BionicOpter was unveiled at Hanover Messe last spring, it caused a global stir. An online video of the robot was viewed more than 840,000 times. The company was bombarded by calls from people asking where they could buy one or whether there was a toy version in the pipeline.
Frontzek says there could be even talk of using it as an unmanned drone for military purposes, but the company is not interested in churning out robot gadgets. “We only want to learn from nature. That does not mean we want to copy nature.”
Frontzek explains that the team gained new knowledge primarily in three key areas while developing the BionicOpter. The robot’s lightness gave the members insight into how to better manufacture carbon fiber frameworks. The flight itself taught the team about how to more efficiently utilize energy. By simultaneously controlling the BionicOpter’s hovering, gliding and flying actions, members learned how to better integrate multiple functions.
Festo has since acquired several patents and now plans to incorporate its new findings into its main factory automation business.
It’s not all about functionality, though. The BionicOpter recreates the beauty of the original, too. It certainly roused the same affection in me as a real dragonfly would. Frontzek smiled when he heard this. It seems insects are not much loved in Europe. Nonetheless, he admitted, it would be hard to tug on people’s heart strings if the robot was just “a gearbox with four wings.”
One of the enduring memories Frontzek has from last spring’s trade fair was the strong sense of wonder the BionicOpter engendered in the women and young people who came to watch it being demonstrated.
“For me, the dragonfly is an ambassador for the latest technology. If it convinces young people to be engineers in the future, this would make me very happy.”
With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.
Thirteen degrees of freedom for unique flight manoeuvres
In addition to control of the shared flapping frequency and twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings also features an amplitude controller. The tilt of the wings determines the direction of thrust. Amplitude control allows the intensity of the thrust to be regulated. When combined, the remote-controlled dragonfly can assume almost any position in space.
This unique way of flying is made possible by the lightweight construction and the integration of functions: components such as sensors, actuators and mechanical components as well as open- and closed-loop control systems are installed in a very tight space and adapted to one another.
With the remote-controlled dragonfly, Festo demonstrates wireless real-time communication, a continuous exchange of information, as well as the ability to combine different sensor evaluations and identify complex events and critical states.
The mechanics of dragonfly flight are unique: dragonflies can manoeuvre in all directions, glide without having to beat their wings and hover in the air. Their ability to move their two pairs of wings independently enables them to slow down and turn abruptly, to accelerate swiftly and even to fly backwards.
A natural model for flight
With the BionicOpter, Festo has applied these highly complex characteristics to an ultra-lightweight flying object at a technical level. For the first time, there is a model that can master more flight conditions than a helicopter, plane and glider combined.
In addition to controlling the flapping frequency and the twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings features an amplitude controller. This means that the direction of thrust and the intensity of thrust for all four wings can be adjusted individually, thus enabling the remote-controlled dragonfly to move in almost any orientation in space. The intelligent kinematics correct any vibrations during flight and ensure flight stability both indoors and outdoors.
Integration of functions in the smallest of spaces
The unique flight behaviour is made possible by the lightweight design of the model dragonfly and the integration of its functions: sensors, actuators and mechanical components as well as communication, open and closed-loop control systems are installed in a very small space and connected to one another.
Highly complex system with easy operation
Despite its complexity, the highly integrated system can be operated easily and intuitively via a smartphone. The flapping frequency,amplitude and installation angle are controlled by software and electronics; the pilot just has to steer the dragonfly – there is no need to coordinate the complex motion sequences.
New innovations with bionics
The BionicOpter was developed as part of the Bionic Learning Network. Together with colleges, universities and development companies, Festo has spent many years developing and supporting projects and test models whose basic technical principles are derived from nature.
Whether it is energy efficiency or lightweight construction, the integration of functions or the ability to learn and to communicate, throughout evolution, nature has developed a wealth of optimization strategies for adapting to its environment, and these strategies can be applied to the world of engineering.
After bird flight had been deciphered with the SmartBird, the developers took on their next-biggest challenge: modelling the dragonfly at a technical level – with even more functions and even less weight.
Lightweight construction across all parts
With a wingspan of 63 cm and a body length of 44 cm, the modeldragonfly weighs just 175 grams. The wings consist of a carbonfibreframe and a thin foil covering. The structure is made offlexible polyamide and terpolymer. This makes the entire systemflexible and ultralight, but still sturdy. The small ribcage housesthe battery, nine servo motors and a high-performance ARMmicrocontroller, all installed in the smallest of spaces just like thesensors and wireless modules.
Dynamic flight behaviour in all directions in space
Up and down, forwards, backwards and to the side: the flapping wing design of the BionicOpter enables it to fly in all directions in space and hover in mid-air just like a helicopter. Unlike a helicopter, however, the dragonfly does not need to tilt forwards to generate forward thrust. This means that it can fly horizontally as well as float like a glider. Its lightweight design means it is able to start autonomously.
Open and closed-loop control on board
All these manoeuvres can be executed with ease using a smartphone. During operation, the remote-control system simply transfers the signals that tell the object which direction to fly in and at what speed. The microcontroller calculates all the parameters that can be adjusted mechanically based on the recorded flight data and the pilot’s input.
The processor actuates the nine servo motors to translate these parameters into movement using beat frequency, a swivel device and the amplitude controller.
Thirteen degrees of freedom for unique flight manoeuvres
A motor in the bottom part of the housing provides the drive for the common beat frequency of the four wings, which is adjustable between 15 and 20 Hz (1st degree of freedom).
Like a real dragonfly, the BionicOpter’s wings can be turned from horizontal to vertical. Each wing is individually actuated by a servo motor during this process and twisted by up to 90 degrees (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th degree of freedom).
Four motors at the wing joints control the amplitudes. A linear movement in the wing root infinitely adjusts the integrated crank mechanism to vary the deflection between approximately 80 and 130 degrees (6th, 7th, 8th, 9th degree of freedom). The swivelling of the wings determines the thrust direction. The thrust intensity can be regulated using the amplitude controller. The combination of both enables the dragonfly to hover on the spot, manoeuvre backwards and transition smoothly from hovering to forward flight.
The last four degrees of freedom are in the head and tail. The body of the dragonfly is fitted with four flexible muscles made of nitinol. These shape memory alloys (SMAs) contract when exposed to heat and expand when they cool down. Passing an electric current through the SMAs produces ultralight actuators that move the head horizontally and the tail vertically. (10th, 11th, 12th, 13th degree of freedom)
Process reliability through condition monitoring
In order to stabilise the flying object, data on the position and the twisting of the wings is continuously recorded and evaluated in real time during the dragonfly’s flight. The acceleration and tilting angle of the BionicOpter in space can be measured using the inertia sensors. The integrated position and acceleration sensors detect the speed and spatial direction of the dragonfly’s flight. For Festo, the principle of continuous diagnostics is a guarantee of operational reliability and process stability – whether in bionic flying objects or everyday industrial use.
As a global manufacturer of pneumatic and electric automation technology, Festo’s core business is helping to shape the production and working environments of the future and offers its customers innovative solutions for the production systems of tomorrow and beyond.
Intelligent products through digital refinement
Networking figures large in the vision of production of the future. Centralised plant control will continue its evolutionary development and, at the same time, greater use will be made of the opportunities afforded by decentralised self-organisation.
Tasks that are currently still performed by a central master computer will be taken over by components in the future. Individual workpieces will themselves determine what functions they need plants to provide. This digital refinement will give rise to increasingly intelligent products that can actively support the production process thanks to increased functionality – from energy autonomy through to condition monitoring – in the smallest of installation spaces.
Highly integrated bionic model
With the BionicOpter, Festo is illustrating how these aspects of integrating functions and miniaturisation can be realised. In addition, the remote-controlled dragonfly also demonstrates wireless real-time communication, the continuous exchange of information and the combination of different sensor evaluations as well as the identification of complex events and critical states.
Festo’s integrated automation concept, based on the automation platform CPX, is an approach that already offers a means of achieving this.
The electrical terminal CPX for valve terminals offers more than just a means of linking the field and master control levels. It has diagnostic capabilities and can provide condition monitoring functions. Its individual modules already make it possible to integrate the actuation of pneumatic cylinders via the modular valve terminals MPA and VTSA with motion controllers for electric drives. It also offers integrated safety functions. This makes it possible to access diagnostic values, locate problems quickly and replace faulty modules.
Does it have large blue eyes? Check. Are there four wings? Check. Does it have a long, shiny tail? Check.
Robotics 