AirCrawler: A Cross-Modal Perching Robot Capable of Automatic Air–Ground–Wall–Ceiling Transition

Due to their high flexibility and low labor costs, aerial robots are promising for a variety of real-world applications. Nevertheless, aerial robots face many challenges in terms of safety, battery life, weather conditions, and propeller noise during task execution. To address these challenges, in this work, we develop a cross-modal perching robot named AirCrawler, inspired by insect perching skills. AirCrawler exhibits the capabilities of perching with active and passive techniques, all-round crawling, attaching, and taking off again on various surfaces, such as ground, walls, and ceilings. The incorporation of active perching and all-round crawling allows AirCrawler to inspect diverse surfaces closely, demonstrating flexible transition capability. The passive perching and attaching capabilities allow the robot to halt its motors, thereby extending the valuable mission endurance and performing tasks stealthily. This research focuses on the automatic control problem of air–ground–wall–ceiling transition processes. We presents the hardware architecture, mechanical design, algorithms and innovative strategies. Field tests illustrate the robot’s effectiveness in performing inspection and monitoring tasks using an onboard camera. Our primary contribution lies in the development of a hybrid strategy that combines active and passive perching, all-round crawling, attaching, and flying. This research significantly enhances the automation of transition processes.