The hopping rotochute is a new hybridmicro vehicle that consists of a small coaxialrotor system housed in a lightweight cage.The body is designed to be self righting sothat after impacting the ground it passivelyreorients itself to an upright position. Theair vehicle is powered in short bursts so ittraverses an area by hopping. Performanceis generated using an experimentallyvalidated flight dynamic model capable ofpredicting the trajectory and orientationwhile the vehicle is air borne and on theground. Parametric trade studies varyingrotor rotational speed, vehicle mass, andcontrol mass are examined. Throughdynamic simulation combined with flighttesting it has been shown that the hoppingrotochute is a promising new micro vehiclethat is well suited to operation in smallspaces with complex terrain.
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