Design Issues for a Walking-Flying Robot

In this paper, a design problem is attached to develop a robotic platform with hybrid mobility capability by combining locomotion and flight operations. Such a complex mobile robot can be required in applications in which one motion capability is not enough to ensure the success of an assigned task, such as in damaged cultural heritage sites, risky industrial environments, or accidented power plants where several kinds of obstacles cannot be overcome by locomotion and flying is not always possible. Design requirements are analyzed in order to identify the peculiarities of combining locomotion and flight in a suitable robotic platform with modular mechanism design that is based on parallel architecture for leg structures and propeller plate for drone flight. Design issues are discussed in terms of size, features, component assembly, user-oriented operation, sensors, and equipment for assigned tasks. A specific example is reported as referring to the design experience of HB platform that has been developed at LARM for applications in Cultural heritage sites both for inspection and intervention. A prototype is illustrated to show the feasibility of the proposed integrated mechanism design with suitable operation capabilities.