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.