A flying-insect-inspired hybrid robot for disaster exploration

Quadcopters have been widely used in many areas such as disaster rescue and exploration in recent years. Rescue missions frequently require quadcopters to be able to go through narrow spaces and be energy-efficient. Existing quadcopters have flaws in these aspects, which prevents their further applications in this area. This paper proposes a novel design of a hybrid robot that can both fly in the air and move on the ground. By automatically folding and deploying its frame, this hybrid robot is able to explore narrow spaces in destroyed high-rise buildings in disasters (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.). In this paper, we present the design methodology and control strategy of the proposed hybrid robot. The feasibility and performance of the hybrid robot are evaluated both analytically and experimentally as well. To our best knowledge, this is the first hybrid robot capable of exploring narrow spaces in high-rise buildings in disasters.