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As part of the MBIE-funded project "Enabling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones) to use Tools in Complex Dynamic Environments", the Drone Technology Research Group recently brought the Planetary Hex aircraft to Christchurch for a demonstration to industry. The demonstration involved using the aircraft to deploy a cup anemometer (a small wind measurement device) to a small mounting position.

While visually a simple task, not only is precision required, but also the ability to apply a sustained contact force while the sensor adheres to the surface. This sustained contact is only possible with a full-actuated aircraft; a traditional quadcopter can only provide a forward force by tilting, which will cause the aircraft to crash if the force is sustained for any period. Furthermore, strong gusts up to 28 km/hr were recorded, with the wind direction continuously varying (watch the orange wind sock in the background).

Have a look at our previous video of the aircraft performing a pruning task in an outdoors environment - https://youtu.be/jVdhGG9gPhA

Anemometer Deployment via Drone

The DTRG team recently took the fully-actuated Planetary Hex airframe to a farm in North Auckland, to test its ability to prune trees in an uncontrolled wind environment. This was in coordination with the University of Canterbury's UC Vision group, whose LIDAR-based vision system allowed the aircraft to autonomously track the branch. Just one tap on the monitor is needed to tell the aircraft which point it should cut. Angus Lynch was the pilot, with Sean Marriott (University of Canterbury) managing the autonomy and Connor Williams (DTRG) supervising the cut.

Have a look at our previous video of the aircraft performing a similar operation in the lab environment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7iD2I6ycZ8

Also see the UC Vision website for more on this project - https://ucvision.org.nz/drones/

Outdoors Autonomous Pruning

Enabling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs/drones) to use tools for physical interaction is a major thread of research in the Drone Technology Research Group. This has led to a range of novel aircraft configurations and control methods. In coordination with the University of Canterbury's UC Vision team, we can now autonomously cut branches with one of our aircraft.

UC Vision's LIDAR-based branch detection method was integrated with the DTRG fully-actuated drone configuration to produce an aircraft which will find and cut the branch with just a tap on the control screen from the pilot. For this demonstration, Angus Lynch was the pilot, helping Sean Marriott (University of Canterbury) on integrating the vision system with the aircraft. All flying seen in this video is fully autonomous.

To see this aircraft trimming a tree under manual control, take a look at this video - https://youtu.be/xQn_gyVdZXY

Also see the UC Vision website for more on this project - https://ucvision.org.nz/drones/

Autonomous Branch Pruning

Wind Tunnel Research moves outdoors with flight testing of a Fixed-Wing Flying Meteorological System. The latest in a recent series of projects in aerial meteorology, focused on gathering wind data in location not accessible by traditional sensors, this work aims to improve atmospheric models, and hence wind resilience, through increased data availability. Previously using multirotors, this year has seen the introduction of a fixed-wing aircraft. This brings challenges in correcting the data because of the high relative speed of the aircraft and the lack of a consistent sensor location.

This short video shows a portion of a recent test flight of the aircraft, checking the behaviour of the aircraft under manual and autonomous control. Special thanks to the Tamaki Model Aircraft Club (www.tmac.co.nz) for hosting us for the flight tests. This project is funded by the Warwick and Judy Smith Engineering Endowment Fund.

Outdoors Flying with a Fixed-Wing UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) are revolutionising surveying and inspection tasks which once required crewed aircraft, and are becoming a standard tool for a wide range of applications. However, one glaring omission is the ability to accurately use tools to perform precision tasks in high and hard-to-reach locations. One such task is tree pruning, such as near powerlines and other critical infrastructure.

The Drone Technology Research Group at the University of Auckland has worked to develop a novel drone configuration for this task, the result of an optimisation process. Here, we show several examples of the aircraft performing a cutting operation while being manually flown.

Flights were conducted by Angus Lynch, with Dr Shahab Kazemi monitoring data output. Dr Sam Schofield (UC) helped with the cutting demonstration while integrating a vision tracking system. This project is led by the University of Canterbury, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Branch Pruning with a Fully-Actuated Drone

Industries such as construction, agriculture, and many more require the ability to position and orient payloads with unique geometries. Utilising a swarm of drones to perform these tasks allows not only for the payload-carrying capacity to be scaled by varying the number of drones, but also enables high precision and control.

This video shows two small drones carrying a rigid payload between them. The payload is free to pivot, allowing the drones to not only keep it airborne, but also attain a desired position and orientation.

This work was conducted by Connor Williams and Jaap Skinner as a Final Year Research Project in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Collaboratively Carrying a Payload with Two Drones

Aerial manipulation is greatly expanding the potential of drones, removing workers from potential harm. An example of this is installation of components at height, which normally involves a worker at height driving a screw into a vertical wall. However, despite the prevalence of such work in construction and engineering, the challenges of using a drone to drive a horizontal screw have not been extensively explored.

Here, an overactuated drone to apply a torque to a peg in a hole. Note the arm on the receptor turning as the torque is applied. This replicates the loading of a screw, as well as the motion constraints applied to the UAV.

This work was conducted by Louis Lee and Dulina Senevirathna as a Final Year Research Project in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Screwdriving UAV Demonstration

A major focus in our drone development is making aircraft which can perform tasks involving physical contact. Both the aircraft and controller must be capable of accepting the forces resulting from the contact, and maintaining position in the face of disturbances.<br />An important aspect is the angle at which the contact is made. In this video, an overactuated octorotor makes and holds contact with a bar (representing a powerline) at five different angles.<br />This work was conducted by Chantelle Singh as part of her Masters in Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Prolonged Physical Contact

Multirotor drones can be required to operate in challenging environments, such as high wind conditions. Rather than attempting to hover, one option is to perch on the object. This requires an adaptable leg, which can grip any potential target branch or rail.<br />This video shows one such leg, which was developed by Junwoo Park in 2024 as part of a summer research scholarship.

Adaptable Leg for Multirotor UAVs

Multirotor UAVs suffer from endurance issues due to limited battery capacity, greatly limiting their use for any task such as surveillance. To remedy this, a system was developed for perching of multirotor UAVs onto agricultural farm posts. The project consists of two major sections: design and testing of a perching mechanism and design and testing of a Computer Vision based system for automated landing, with the aim of the project to automate the perching.

Here we see a passive gripper under test in the lab. As the weight of the UAV is applied to the post, the legs are forced inwards, gripping the aircraft securely to its perch.

This work was conducted by Tzu-Jui Lin and David Long as a Final Year Research Project in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Farm Post Perching UAV

The aim of the multi-year Skydiving UAV is to provide a photography platform for skydiving operators.. A major aspect implemented is an autonomous parachute recovery system, to enable safe and reliable recovery.

This video shows several phases of flight-testing the parachute recovery system. The UAV is first dropped from a quadcopter in a low-altitude experiment, before being taken up in a Cessna 172M and dropped from an altitude of 750 m.

This work was conducted by Lawrence Pascual and Reuben Schuitemaker as a Final Year Research Project in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Skydiving Photography Drone and Autonomous Parachute Recovery System

Autonomous object avoidance is critical to safe flight. Constructing a flight path from following an object is a means of attaining this without additional proximity sensing, as it is assumed that the object being followed has not collided with anything. This project developed a system for an object to be autonomously tracked by a UAV, replicating its path.<br /><br />In this video, the path of a ball is autonomously replicated by a quadcopter flying around an orchard.<br /><br />This work was conducted by Jay Mills and Blair Eastwood as a Final Year Research Project in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

UAV with On-Board Object Path Following