Quadrolltor: A Reconfigurable Quadrotor with Controlled Rolling and Turning

Huaiyuan Jia; Runze Ding; Kaixu Dong; Songnan Bai; Pakpong Chirarattananon

doi:10.1109/LRA.2023.3279624

Author(s)

Related Research Unit(s)

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4052-4059
Number of pages	8
Journal / Publication	IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume	8
Issue number	7
Online published	24 May 2023
Publication status	Published - Jul 2023

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2023.3279624 Final Published version
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Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85161020100&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(f64efda7-cb19-4598-9352-1c2fd07ea8bf).html

Abstract

This letter reports an aerial robot–Quadrolltor, with the ability to roll and turn. Existing bimodal quadrotors feature cylindrical rolling cages that are rotationally decoupled from the robot's main rigid body. In contrast, the proposed robot employs passively reconfigurable structures to enable the second mode of locomotion, tightly coupling the attitude of the robot to the rolling cage. The benefits are precise rolling and turning control as well as improved rolling efficiency. Experiments were conducted to comprehensively validate the hybrid locomotion. The robot leveraged the superior maneuverability in the rolling mode to take photos of the surroundings at different tilting and panning angles to construct a panoramic image. Besides, the results of the power measurements show a significant reduction in the cost of transport brought by at low speed, equating to a 15-fold extension in the operational range. © 2023 IEEE.