Design and evaluation of a fracture-type protector for a small launching reconnaissance robot

This paper presents the design concepts of a protector developed in series for a small launching reconnaissance robot. By help of an archery device, the protector carrying the small robot could flight to a remote target area, and then let the robot escape from the protector for surveillance mission. The finite element model of the protector including the robot simulated the fracture behaviors of the protector assembly due to hard collision with the ground, and shock tests using the drop table evaluated the shock attenuation from the protector to the robot. Several field tests of 100m-flight revealed that desired motions (launch, flight, land, escape) were achieved successfully.