Airflow field-based manipulation
main / research / airflow-field manipulation
Contactless manipulation of objects at a distance has long been imagined in novels and movies. Considerable research has been conducted in this area, but typically at relatively short distances of up to tens of centimeters, such as using magnetic or acoustic actuation. These technologies often require the objects under manipulation to have specific materials or shapes or to be of microscopic sizes.
In our research, we tackle the challenge of remote contactless manipulation by developing a wind-mimicking technology that can achieve contactless manipulation over a distance of up to several meters, for a wide variety of objects in terms of both materials and sizes.
In nature, airflow or wind can displace a variety of objects such as pollen, pathogens, droplets, plant seeds, and leaves over a great distance of many meters and beyond, maintaining the very ecosystem we are living in. Inspired by wind, we have developed a technique that can remotely control the motion trajectories of objects using jet-induced airflow from up to several meters away from the air nozzle. We achieved such manipulation capability by steering the direction of the air nozzle based on the position and displacement of the objects we were manipulating. We designed a control algorithm to control the direction of the air nozzle with respect to the object position, such that the airflow will blow the object in the desired direction including towards the air nozzle, instead of just blowing them away. This allows us to use airflow to remotely manipulate motion along different trajectories, including circular paths, complex letter-like patterns, and more. Our method is versatile with respect to the object shapes and materials, and we can manipulate a wide range of objects from regularly shaped polystyrene hemispheres and sticks to irregularly shaped cotton wads and face masks as well as deformable crumpled tissue papers and plastic bags along reference paths.
This form of remote, non-contact manipulation is valuable in applications where physical contact is challenging or impossible. We have demonstrated that besides path-following manipulation on solid surfaces, we can also manipulate objects on water surfaces (or amphibious) and in the presence of disturbing airflows. We have also performed automated tasks such as collecting objects into a target receptacle, manipulating a mobile tethered agent to hook and retrieve heavy objects, and maneuvering a tethered soft agent to close an electrical circuit.
Selected publications:
- Haeri, S., Kopitca, A., Kandemir, H. and Zhou, Q., "Meter‐Scale Distance Manipulation of Diverse Objects with Jet‐Induced Airflow Field", Advanced Intelligent Systems, p.2400174.
- Kopitca, A., Haeri, S., and Zhou, Q., "Remote Manipulation of Multiple Objects with Airflow Field Using Model-Based Learning Control", arXiv:2412.03254.