Transformable Bot
Flies over what it cannot drive around.
One machine with two locomotion modes and a stable transition between them, built to the ISRO brief for unstructured Martian terrain.
Built with
2025 · Robotics
What it does
Dual-mode locomotion with a stable in-flight ⇄ on-ground transition
PX4 flight control paired with an independent ground drive controller
A supervising layer arbitrating control authority between modes
One SLAM world model shared across both locomotion modes
The long version
Martian terrain punishes wheels and rotors in opposite ways: wheels get stuck on what they cannot climb, rotors burn a battery on what they could have driven around. Carrying both and switching between them trades mechanical complexity for a much larger set of terrain the vehicle can actually cross.
The interesting problem is not either mode — it is the seam. Flight and ground drive have completely different dynamics, and the transition has to stay stable in both directions. PX4 handles flight, an independent controller handles drive, and a supervising layer arbitrates which one holds authority.
Navigation and mapping run through ROS 2 with SLAM providing a single world model shared across modes, so a map built while flying is still the map being driven through a minute later.