Measured and Simulated Motion of a Hopping Rotochute

摘要

A new hybrid micro vehicle called the hopping rotochute has been developed to robustly explore rough andncomplex terrain. Unlike other jumping robots, the vehicle traverses an area by intermittently powering a smallncoaxial rotor systemthat allows the device to hop over obstacles of various shapes and sizes.Amovable internalmassncontrols the vehicle’s direction of travel, and the exterior shape and low mass center allow the vehicle to passivelynreorient itself to an upright attitude when in contact with the ground. This paper presents a dynamic model of thenhopping rotochute used to assess the basic flight performance of the vehicle. The experimental methods used tonestimate model parameters are described and comparisons between measured and simulated motion are presented.nBasic flight performance predicted by dynamic simulation is reported, including maneuverability, jumpingnperformance, and total range. The simulated results indicate that the hopping rotochute is capable of surmountingnlarger obstacles than current hoppers while being able to navigate with the use of a movable internal mass.