6-DOF All-Terrain Cyclocopter

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 6-DOF all-terrain cyclocopter with multimodal flight capabilities, controlled via PID and NMPC strategies, validated through experiments demonstrating adaptability across aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Contribution

It presents a new control framework for a 6-DOF cyclocopter that addresses underactuation and nonlinearities, enabling multimodal operation in diverse terrains.

Findings

Effective multimodal control demonstrated in experiments

Enhanced performance across aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic modes

Proposed strategies outperform existing control methods

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a 6-DOF all-terrain micro aerial vehicle and two control strategies for multimodal flight, which are experimentally validated. The micro aerial vehicle is propelled by four motors and controlled by a single servo for the control of the cycloidal rotors(cyclorotors) speed and lift direction. Despite the addition of the servo, the system remains underactuated. To address the traditional underactuation problem of cycloidal rotor aircraft, we increase the number of control variables. We propose a PID and a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) framework to tackle the model's nonlinearities and achieve control of attitude, position, and their derivatives.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed multimodal control strategy for 6-DOF all-terrain micro aerial vehicles. The vehicle can operate in aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic modes and can adapt to different terrains and environmental conditions. Our approach enhances the vehicle's performance in each mode of operation, and the results show the advantages of the proposed strategy compared to other control strategies.