PogoDrone: Design, Model, and Control of a Jumping Quadrotor

TL;DR

PogoDrone is a novel hybrid quadrotor that can jump, fly, and operate close to the ground, enabling applications like soil sampling with efficient energy use, demonstrated through simulations and real-world experiments.

Contribution

This work introduces a new jumping-flying robot design with a hybrid control system, combining jumping and flying modes for versatile ground and aerial operations.

Findings

The robot can repeatedly jump and fly in real environments.

Jumping mode reduces energy consumption compared to hovering.

Simulations validate the impact of various factors on energy efficiency.

Abstract

We present a design, model, and control for a novel jumping-flying robot that is called PogoDrone. The robot is composed of a quadrotor with a passive mechanism for jumping. The robot can continuously jump in place or fly like a normal quadrotor. Jumping in place allows the robot to quickly move and operate very close to the ground. For instance, in agricultural applications, the jumping mechanism allows the robot to take samples of soil. We propose a hybrid controller that switches from attitude to position control to allow the robot to fall horizontally and recover to the original position. We compare the jumping mode with the hovering mode to analyze the energy consumption. In simulations, we evaluate the effect of different factors on energy consumption. In real experiments, we show that our robot can repeatedly impact the ground, jump, and fly in a physical environment.