Modeling and Performance Assessment of the HyTAQ, a Hybrid Terrestrial/Aerial Quadrotor

This paper analytically and experimentally evaluates the performance of the hybrid terrestrial and aerial quadrotor (HyTAQ) robot. The HyTAQ is composed of a quadrotor hinged at the center of a cylindrical cage. This configuration gives the robot an increased range compared with aerial-only quadrotors and negates any obstacle avoidance issues that are commonly associated with terrestrial-only robots. An accurate dynamical model of the robot is derived, which helps with an in-depth analysis of the system´s energy consumption. The analysis quantifies the energy savings during terrestrial locomotion as compared with aerial locomotion. Experimental results validate the analysis and indicate that, depending on the surface, the robot´s terrestrial range can be 11 times greater and operational time ten times greater than the aerial range/operation time at equivalent speeds.