Attitude Control by Using the Movement of Center of Gravity for the Legged Air Vehicle

Abstract

In the case of large-scale accident or disaster such as earthquake, search/rescue robots are required to gather information and save lives in dangerous areas for humans. In our previous studies, the Legged Air Vehicle was designed and built for search operations at a disaster site. It is equipped with four legs and a tandem rotor, and is designed to be operated in various environments by combining flight and walking. In flight, the attitude is controlled by moving the center of gravity by turning the legs in order to reduce the number of actuators. In this paper, a new algorithm of the movement of the center of gravity is suggested, and the attitude controller is redesigned accordingly. Also, the attitude control is installed on the robot and its control performance is validated by flight experiments.