A design of a small mobile robot with a hybrid locomotion mechanism of wheels and multi-rotors

Tanaka, Katsuaki; Zhang, Di; Inoue, Shintaro; Kasai, R.; Yokoyama, Hiroya; Shindo, Koki; Matsuhiro, Ko; Marumoto, Shigeaki; Ishii, Hiroyuki; Takanishi, Atsuo

doi:10.1109/icma.2017.8016039

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…For [13] - [14], the ground movement implements with a rolling cage-like frame or wheels that enable impressive maneuverability when rolling on the ground or climbing up walls. Tanaka [15] developed a UAV with separate motors for wheels placed on each side of the drone. Salaan et al [16] described a UAV with a passive rotating shell on each rotor that not only enables it to roll on the ground or a roof, but also move along a vertical wall.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flying STAR2, a Hybrid Flying Driving Robot With a Clutch Mechanism and Energy Optimization Algorithm

Gefen

Zarrouk

2022

IEEE Access

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This paper presents FSTAR2, an improved FSTAR design, and a near optimal energy-based algorithm for a flying-driving robot that can navigate in environments crowded with obstacles. The robot can be used for tasks such as package deliveries, industrial inspection, and search and rescue applications. FSTAR2 is fitted with a clutch mechanism that separates the propellers from the motors when driving. Experiments show that the clutch reduces the driving energy consumption by up to 52% and enables driving at higher speeds. To optimize its energy consumption (reducing its normalized energy cost) the FSTAR2 exploits its flying and driving capabilities by implementing a new approach which encloses the search space of the weighted A* algorithm and finds a new weight for the heuristic function, yielding a near optimal solution. Given that both flying and driving speeds are subject to environmental restrictions, the algorithm favors driving whenever possible (driving is almost three times more energy efficient at the considered speed -2 m/s). Multiple simulations in different environments were conducted and the findings were compared to Dijkstra's algorithm to estimate the quality of the results. In general, the weighted A* algorithm reduced the number of iterations vs the A* algorithm and produced very similar values to Dijkstra's Algorithm. The experimental robot can fly like a regular drone, penetrate (25 cm/10 inches diameter) pipes and drive at speeds of up to 4.5 m/s, which is an increase of 50% compared to FSTAR.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flying STAR2, a Hybrid Flying Driving Robot With a Clutch Mechanism and Energy Optimization Algorithm

Gefen

Zarrouk

2022

IEEE Access

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“…Compared with perching, UAV moving on the ground cannot maintain a high vantage point but preserves the mobility, The authors are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong. qym96@hku.hk A review of common air-ground hybrid-motion vehicles: (a) Transformable hybrid ground-air vehicle [7], (b) Multi-terrain Multi-utility robot (MTMUR) [8], (c) WAMORN (WAseda MOnitoring dRoNe) [9], (d) Air-ground amphibious agricultural information collection robot [10], (e) Our hybrid aerial-ground locomotion UAV with a single passive wheel. which is indeed necessary for tasks such as mobile mapping, exploration, search, and rescue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this concept is quite straightforward and long-existing in our lives, such as aircrafts landing gears for takeoff/landing, its formal application in aerial robots seems scarce. Most of the current work was motivated to improve the mobility of ground robots constrained by rough terrains in disaster relief [8], [9], [10], [7] or out of entertainment or safety [20]. Specifically, Morton et al [7] presented a novel wheel-based locomotion (see Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This concept, unfortunately, has not come true to our best knowledge. Tanaka et al [9] developed a small mobile robot with a hybrid locomotion mechanism of wheels and multi-rotors, WAMORN (see Fig. 1(c)).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 1.A review of common air-ground hybrid-motion vehicles: (a) Transformable hybrid ground-air vehicle[7], (b) Multi-terrain Multi-utility robot (MTMUR)[8], (c) WAMORN (WAseda MOnitoring dRoNe)[9], (d) Air-ground amphibious agricultural information collection robot[10], (e) Our hybrid aerial-ground locomotion UAV with a single passive wheel.…”

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Hybrid aerial ground locomotion with a single passive wheel

Qin

Wei

Zhang

2020

Preprint

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Exploiting contacts with environment structures provides extra force support to a UAV, often reducing the power consumption and hence extending the mission time. This paper investigates one such way to exploit flat surfaces in the environment by a novel aerial-ground hybrid locomotion. Our design is a single passive wheel integrated at the UAV bottom, serving a minimal design to date. We present the principle and implementation of such a simple design as well as its control. Flight experiments are conducted to verify the feasibility and the power saving caused by the ground locomotion. Results show that our minimal design allows successful aerial-ground hybrid locomotion even with a less-controllable bi-copter UAV. The ground locomotion saves up to 77% battery without much tuning effort.

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The development of a novel terrestrial/aerial robot: autonomous quadrotor tilting hybrid robot

Zhang,

Xu,

Zhu

et al. 2023

Robotica

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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) possess fast-moving abilities and have been used in various tasks in the past decades. However, their performances are still restricted by insufficient endurance and confined environments. Intuitively, combining other locomotion modes with UAVs, such as diving and driving, would be an appropriate idea to improve the robot’s adaptability and solve the endurance problem. Recently, the terrestrial/aerial hybrid robots have drawn the researchers’ eyes for their outstanding performances, which can deploy flight mode to traverse insurmountable terrains and ground mode to increase endurance and realize detailed searches. Therefore, this paper developed the autonomous quadrotor tilting hybrid robot (AQT-HR) to achieve terrestrial/aerial dual-modal mobility and verified that the robot delivers high energy efficiency. The AQT-HR can achieve flying and driving through a quadrotor tilting mechanism, which can alter one single driving force into different directions. Furthermore, the dynamic models of the hybrid robot’s aerial and ground locomotion are derived and introduced into the model-feedforward PID control algorithm for improving the robot’s flying stability. Finally, we conducted some mobility tests and experiments about traversing obstacles to demonstrate that the proposed hybrid robot can realize autonomous mode switching and perform a low energy consumption in ground movement mode.

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A design of a small mobile robot with a hybrid locomotion mechanism of wheels and multi-rotors

Cited by 16 publications

References 6 publications

Flying STAR2, a Hybrid Flying Driving Robot With a Clutch Mechanism and Energy Optimization Algorithm

Flying STAR2, a Hybrid Flying Driving Robot With a Clutch Mechanism and Energy Optimization Algorithm

Hybrid aerial ground locomotion with a single passive wheel

The development of a novel terrestrial/aerial robot: autonomous quadrotor tilting hybrid robot

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