Ropter

Leader of the project.

Background

This project was carried out by Haowei Yi and me during our freshman year. It aimed to develop a ground-aerial amphibious robot capable of both ground locomotion and aerial flight to overcome obstacles. The proposed robot, named Ropter — a combination of "rover" and "copter" — features a unique actuation system in which the wheels and rotor blades share the same set of motors.

Design

The overall design of Ropter is shown in Fig.1. Each wheel of Ropter is designed with an internal gear and a set of reduction gears. The head of the rotor blade is equipped with a gear as well. In ground mode, the gear engages with the wheel's reduction gear set, thereby driving the wheel. To switch to flight mode, teh rotor blades are rotated to a horizontal position, allowing the robot to function as a quadrotor UAV.

(a) Gear drive of the wheel.

(b) Morphing from ground mode to aerial mode.

Fig.1. Overall design of Ropter.

Video