Duawlfin: A Drone with Unified Actuation for Wheeled Locomotion and Flight Operation

TL;DR

Duawlfin introduces a simplified hybrid drone design that combines wheeled ground mobility and flight using only standard quadrotor motors, enabling efficient, safe, and seamless mode transitions for urban and indoor applications.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel hybrid drone design with unified actuation, eliminating extra actuators and reducing energy use while enabling safe, efficient ground and aerial operation.

Findings

Stable flight performance comparable to traditional quadcopters.

Efficient slope climbing up to 30 degrees.

Agile turning with near 1g lateral acceleration.

Abstract

This paper presents Duawlfin, a drone with unified actuation for wheeled locomotion and flight operation that achieves efficient, bidirectional ground mobility. Unlike existing hybrid designs, Duawlfin eliminates the need for additional actuators or propeller-driven ground propulsion by leveraging only its standard quadrotor motors and introducing a differential drivetrain with one-way bearings. This innovation simplifies the mechanical system, significantly reduces energy usage, and prevents the disturbance caused by propellers spinning near the ground, such as dust interference with sensors. Besides, the one-way bearings minimize the power transfer from motors to propellers in the ground mode, which enables the vehicle to operate safely near humans. We provide a detailed mechanical design, present control strategies for rapid and smooth mode transitions, and validate the concept through extensive experimental testing. Flight-mode tests confirm stable aerial performance comparable to conventional quadcopters, while ground-mode experiments demonstrate efficient slope climbing (up to 30{\deg}) and agile turning maneuvers approaching 1g lateral acceleration. The seamless transitions between aerial and ground modes further underscore the practicality and effectiveness of our approach for applications like urban logistics and indoor navigation. All the materials including 3-D model files, demonstration video and other assets are open-sourced at https://sites.google.com/view/Duawlfin.