A Two-Wheeled Quadrotor with All-Clockwise Tilted Rotors for Level-Attitude Surface Locomotnion

Conventional wheel-equipped quadrotor UAVs must tilt their bodies to generate lateral forces, limiting their ability to maintain a desired attitude during lateral motion. This paper proposes a wheeled quadrotor with all-clockwise tilted rotors that uses surface contact as a constraint to generate propulsion along the contact surface without tilting the vehicle. We analyze feasible forces and system controllability under surface contact and optimize the vehicle design considering different rotor-spin configurations. The optimization results show that a configuration in which all four rotors spin clockwise can generate a larger tangential force than the conventional alternating-spin configuration. This approach enables both aerial and contact-based locomotion without additional rotor-tilting actuators or mechanisms. Simulation results demonstrate both hovering in free space and horizontal locomotion on a floor while maintaining a level attitude.

Source: arXiv:2610.40502v1 - http://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40502v1 PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.40502v1 Original Link: http://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40502v1