A Biologically Inspired Micro - Vehicle Capable of Aerial and Terrestrial Locomotion

Manuscript submitted October 10, 2007. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Defense under Contracts FA8651-04C-0234 and FA8651-05HI-C-0097 and the NPS/US Special Forces Command (USSCOM) Cooperative Field Experimentation Program R. J. Bachmann is with BioRobots, LLC Cleveland, OH 44127 USA ([email protected]). F. J. Boria and P. G. Ifju are with the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA ([email protected]; [email protected]). Ravi Vaidyanathan is with the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, BS8 1TH (phone: +44 7970 330 814, [email protected]). R. D. Quinn is with Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA ([email protected]). Abstract – The design, fabrication, and field testing of a 30.5cm robot capable of aerial and terrestrial locomotion is described. The Micro Air-Land Vehicle (MALV) flies using a chord-wise, undercambered, bat-like compliant fixed wing and walks over rough terrain using passively compliant wheel-leg running gear. The vehicle successfully performs transitions from flight to walking and in some situations, from walking to flight. The lightweight (~100g) carbon fiber vehicle flies, lands and crawls with a video sensor payload exceeding 20% its own mass. Index Terms – animal inspired locomotion mechanisms, micro air vehicles, legged robots, micro robots, flying and walking mobility