Design of a Multimodal Climbing and Gliding Robotic Platform

Animals often exhibit the ability to operate in and transition between multiple modes of locomotion efficiently and elegantly. On the other hand, bioinspired robotic platforms have typically focused on emulating animal-like behavior in a single mode of locomotion. This paper presents the conceptual development, design, and verification of a robotic platform capable of locomotion in scansorial and aerial regimes. The resulting ICAROS platform demonstrates climbing prepared vertical surfaces and transitioning to a glide path with performance characteristics comparable to its biological counterparts.