Design and Verification of a Novel Triphibian Platform

Multi-modal robots expand their operations from one working media to another, land to air for example. The majorities multi-modal robots mainly refer to platforms that operate in two different media. However, for all-terrain tasks, there is seldom research to date in the literature. In this paper, we proposed a triphibian robotic platform aiming at solving the challenges of different propulsion systems and immensely varied working media. In our design, three ducted fans are adopted to unify the propulsion system and provide the robot with driving forces to perform all-terrain operations. A morphable mechanism is designed to enable the transition between different motion modes, and specifically, a cylindrical body is implemented as the rolling mechanism in land mode. Detailed design principles of different mechanisms and the transition between various locomotion modes are analyzed in detail. Finally, a triphibian robot prototype is fabricated and tested in various working media with mono-modal and multi-modal functionalities. Experiments have verified our platform, and the results show promising adaptions for future exploration tasks in different working scenarios.