Design of a quadrotor flying robot capable of Mars rock sample collection

Due to the successful completion of the flight technology demonstration by the "Ingenuity" helicopter on Mars, employing the flying robots for exploration may become the mainstream approach for Mars exploration. Compared with the rovers, adopting flying robots for Mars exploration is not constrained by the terrain of Mars, resulting in a higher exploration efficiency. This paper designs a quadrotor flying robot with a flight duration of 3 minutes, capable of sampling Martian rock sample. Experiments are conducted to validate the performance of the propulsion unit and energy unit of the flying robot under the simulated Martian atmospheric conditions, as well as the performance of the onboard sampling robotic arm in Earth environment. The experimental results indicate that the propulsion unit can provide a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.6 while consuming 1000 W of power for the flying robot. The energy unit not only provides energy supply for the robot’s 3 min flight but also ensures the energy supply for the flying robot’s survival during the Martian night. The onboard sampling robotic arm is capable of grasping Martian rock samples weighing 100 g located beneath the flying robot.