A Bio-Inspired Mind Map to Assist in Concept Generation for Wall Climbing Systems: Development, Assessment, and Resulting Prototypes
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Mechanical Engineering
- Page Count
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28
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--29656
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/29656
- Download Count
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871
Paper Authors
Daniel D. Jensen U.S. Air Force Academy
Dr. Dan Jensen is a Professor of Engineering Mechanics at the U.S. Air Force Academy where he has been since 1997. He received his B.S. (Mechanical Engineering), M.S. (Applied Mechanics) and Ph.D. (Aerospace Engineering Science) from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has worked for Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, NASA, University of the Pacific, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and MSC Software Corp. His research includes design of Micro Air Vehicles, development of innovative design methodologies and enhancement of engineering education. Dr Jensen has authored over 100 refereed papers and has been awarded over $4 million of research grants.
Kristin L. Wood Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
Dr. Kristin L. Wood is currently a Professor and Head of Pillar, Engineering and Product Development (EPD), and Co-Director of the SUTD-MIT International Design Center (IDC) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Dr. Wood completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology, where he was an AT&T Bell Laboratories Ph.D. Scholar. Dr. Wood joined the faculty at the University of Texas in September 1989 and established a computational and experimental laboratory for research in engineering design and manufacturing, in addition to a teaching laboratory for prototyping, reverse engineering measurements, and testing. During his academic career, Dr. Wood was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the United States Air Force Academy. Through 2011, Dr. Wood was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Design & Manufacturing Division at The University of Texas at Austin. He was a National Science Foundation Young Investigator, the “Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in Engineering,” “University Distinguished Teaching Professor,” and the Director of the Manufacturing and Design Laboratory (MaDLab) and MORPH Laboratory. Dr. Wood has published more than 400 refereed articles and books; has received more than 70 national and international awards in design, research, and education; and is currently a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Aaron P Bauer United States Air Force Academy
Blake Perez Singapore University of Technology and Design
Milton Doria United States Air Force Academy
Michael Lawrence Anderson P.E. United States Air Force
Lt Col Mike Anderson is Associate Professor and Deputy Department Head of Engineering Mechanics, US Air Force Academy. He has been researching autonomous systems for fourteen years, authoring several papers relevant to the field including design of terrestrial and aerial robots, energy efficiency and perching for small UAS, and flight control of Micro Air Vehicles (MAV). Lt Col Anderson has worked as an F-16 flight control actuation systems engineer at Hill Air Force Base, Utah and researched design and control of quadruped robots. Lt Col Anderson earned his PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2011 where he performed pioneering research in the design and control of flapping wing MAVs. From 2011-2014 he served in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate (AFRL/RW) where he led research in GPS-denied navigation for multi-agent autonomous systems. Lt Col Anderson is a registered Professional Engineer and a Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he serves on their Unmanned Systems Program Committee. His research at the Academy focuses on innovative design methodologies applied to UAV problems
Luke Jensen CREO
Abstract
The ability to climb walls (or any vertical surface) is a tremendously useful capability for both biological systems and human-made systems. Biological systems can use this climbing capability to protect themselves from ground-based enemies or to obtain an advantageous position for surveillance. Human-made systems find similar advantages particularly if one of their core functions is gathering intelligence, surveillance or reconnaissance (ISR). Climbing vertical surfaces is a difficult task as evidenced by the relatively few mechanical systems that have climbing capabilities. Biological systems use a wide variety of methods to climb. In this work, we show how a mind map, which displays numerous ways that biological systems climb, can be used to develop concepts and prototypes for mechanical systems that climb. In particular, a mind map that contains 11 different examples of how biological systems climb is used in the concept generation or ideation step in a design process to produce numerous ideas for mechanical climbing systems. The mind map contains both pictorial and text information on the climbing capability for the biological entity. After use of the mind map for ideation, a “down-select” process was used on the set of concepts resulting in the selection of two concepts for prototyping and testing. One concept involved attaching a ladder-like structure to the wall and creating a robot with ladder climbing abilities. The second concept implemented a projectile that was launched and adhered to the wall. The projectile had an attached tether. A robot then used the tether to winch itself up the wall. The mind map was found to be effective in assisting the development of concepts for wall climbing capability and the resulting two prototypes showed definitive feasibility of the two wall climbing concepts.
Jensen, D. D., & Wood, K. L., & Bauer, A. P., & Perez, B., & Doria, M., & Anderson, M. L., & Jensen, L. (2018, June), A Bio-Inspired Mind Map to Assist in Concept Generation for Wall Climbing Systems: Development, Assessment, and Resulting Prototypes Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--29656
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