Cleaning concrete bridges and overpasses is essential before inspections, but traditional methods put workers and commuters at risk of bodily harm. UAS for bridge and overpass cleaning is attractive because it keeps humans out of harm’s way while reducing cost and time required for cleanings. The challenge for a hosing-UAS is that high pressure flow required for cleaning produces high reaction forces and torques that can easily destabilize small, low-thrust vehicles. Other state-of-the-art hosing-UAS approaches “over-engineer” their solutions with vehicles with huge masses and arrays of propellers. This work presents results from an iterative modeling and design process with the goal of engineering “mechanically intelligent” smaller, more agile UAS tailored for specific hosing task constraints. The UAS consists of a UAV, actuated spraygun payload, hose, gas-powered pump, and base-station PC. Results from bench, simulation, and field testing are presented with detailed exposition of the dynamic modeling and controls design.

在检查之前清洁混凝土桥梁和立交桥至关重要，但传统方法会使工人和通勤者面临人身伤害的风险。用于桥梁和立交桥清洁的无人机很有吸引力，因为它可以使人类免受伤害，同时减少清洁所需的成本和时间。软管无人机面临的挑战是清洁所需的高压流会产生高反作用力和扭矩，很容易使小型低推力车辆不稳定。其他最先进的软管无人机系统采用具有巨大质量和螺旋桨阵列的车辆来“过度设计”其解决方案。这项工作展示了迭代建模和设计过程的结果，其目标是针对特定的软管任务限制设计“机械智能”的更小、更灵活的无人机系统。UAS 由无人机、驱动喷枪有效载荷、软管、气动泵和基站 PC 组成。给出了台架、仿真和现场测试的结果，并详细阐述了动态建模和控制设计。