A laser-microfabricated electrohydrodynamic thruster for centimeter-scale aerial robots

To date, insect scale robots capable of controlled flight have used flapping-wings for generating lift, but this requires a complex and failure-prone mechanism. A simpler alternative is electrohydrodynamic (EHD) thrust, which requires no moving mechanical parts. In EHD, corona discharge generates a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-04, Vol.15 (4), p.e0231362-e0231362
Main Authors: Hari Prasad, Hari Krishna, Vaddi, Ravi Sankar, Chukewad, Yogesh M, Dedic, Elma, Novosselov, Igor, Fuller, Sawyer B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Biology and Life Sciences
Carbon fibers
Corona
Efficiency
Electric Conductivity
Electric corona
Electric fields
Electrodes
Electrohydrodynamics
Electronics
Emitters
Energy (Physics)
Engineering and Technology
Equipment Design
Fabrication
Flapping wings
Flight
Free flight
Insects
Ions
Kinetic energy
Laser machining
Lasers
Materials selection
Mechanical engineering
Medicine and Health Sciences
Micromachining
Particle collisions
Physical Sciences
Robotics
Robotics industry
Robots
Velocity
Wings
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Summary:To date, insect scale robots capable of controlled flight have used flapping-wings for generating lift, but this requires a complex and failure-prone mechanism. A simpler alternative is electrohydrodynamic (EHD) thrust, which requires no moving mechanical parts. In EHD, corona discharge generates a flow of ions in an electric field between two electrodes; the high-velocity ions transfer their kinetic energy to neutral air molecules through collisions, accelerating the gas and creating thrust. We introduce a fabrication process for EHD thruster based on 355 nm laser micromachining, which potentially allows for greater materials selection, such as fiber-based composites, than is possible with semiconductor-based lithographic processing. Our four-thruster device measures 1.8 × 2.5 cm and is composed of steel emitters and a lightweight carbon fiber mesh. We measured the electrical current and thrust of each thruster of our four-thruster design, showing agreement with the Townsend relation. The peak thrust of our device, at 5.2 kV, was measured to be 3.03 times its 37 mg (363.0 μN) mass using a precision balance. In free flight, we demonstrated liftoff at 4.6 kV.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0231362