In context
In 2025, close-range reconnaissance faced a trade-off: aerial drones offered rapid arrival but suffered from high rotor noise and airflow disturbance, while ground robots struggled with cross-domain mobility. Combining both modes into a single transformable platform promised to overcome these limitations, but existing designs often lacked structural flexibility and narrow-space capability.
What was reported
Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Mechanical Equipment proposed a land-air amphibious robot that integrates a quadrotor with four independently driven wheel systems. The robot features a lightweight transformable arm self-locking mechanism, ensuring safe locking during flight without extra devices, and enabling arm folding for narrow passages. A structured body feathering mechanism automatically centers the blades, addressing issues like shaking and motor efficiency loss.
A finite state machine control strategy, based on a lightweight laser sensing array and visual sensors, achieves stable control of flight and ground modes, as well as smooth state transitions. The prototype demonstrated a range ratio of over 6, with close-range noise reduced from 70 dB in air to 52 dB on the ground. The wheel motors, weighing only 52 g, deliver a peak torque of 200 mN·m and a power-to-weight ratio of 673 W/kg.
Functional verification was conducted in wild grassland, rugged terrain, water wading, and indoor environments, confirming the robot's suitability for multi-dimensional reconnaissance and silent infiltration in complex scenes.
Why it mattered
This work advanced the practicality of land-air amphibious robots for industrial and defense applications, offering a viable solution for silent, low-noise reconnaissance in constrained environments. The design innovations in lightweight actuation and adaptive control could inspire similar hybrid platforms in inspection and surveillance tasks.
"The land-air amphibious transformable robot can be applied to multi-dimensional reconnaissance and silent infiltration in complex multi-domain scenes."
Source: 《机器人》期刊 (robot.sia.cn) · Published 2025-06-09 · “陆空两栖多模态可变形机器人”