Chinese Scientists Developing Mars Drone That Can Roll and Fly

Chinese scientists are developing a lightweight Mars drone capable of both rolling on the ground and flying using contra-rotating coaxial rotors. Space.com reports: The air-ground dual-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weighs only 10.6 ounces (300 grams), equivalent to the weight of an apple. The development team is at the School of Astronautics (SoA) of the Harbin Institute of Technology. Seen as showing promising potential in future Mars science work, the UAV can take off at any time, traverse obstacles, and boasts superb endurance, reports state-owned China Central Television (CCTV).

"On the ground, it mainly rolls by shifting its center of gravity," said Zhu Yimin, a Ph.D candidate at SoA. "In the air, it relies on a pair of contra-rotating coaxial rotors, controlled by a steering engine to adjust the forward direction, to control torque and force, ultimately achieving stable flight," Zhu told CCTV. The UAV work entails multiple models of air-ground dual-mode robots with different configurations, CCTV reports. These robots move by rolling close to the ground, which reduces energy consumption, and can achieve a flight endurance time of more than six times that of traditional drones of the same size.

According to Zhang Lixian, a professor within the SoA, the hope is that the aerial vehicle can show off its long endurance and observational abilities on Mars. "Our second goal is for such machines to be suitable for construction in many underground spaces and for exploring unknown underground spaces. We also need robotic means for inspection and environmental detection. We have now materialized all these functions," said Zhang. A video of the drone can be found here.

Wow

[vbdasc]

A Kung-fu drone?

Not humanoid?

[commodore73]

Not a humanoid droid? Gosh, I wonder why.

Sounds fragile

[algaeman]

Does this dock in a larger unit? 300g seems like it is not going to be rugged enough for operation far from human hands. There are strong wind and dust storms on Mars.

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[votsalo]

You mean it has a feeble voice? Ingenuity looks a lot sturdier and has a lot more mass (4.0 Kg) than than this UAV (they should give it a name). Ingenuity also has solar panels, while this UAV doesn't seem to. But its large wheels may protect it from damage. Also Mars' "strong wind" may be up to 60 MPH, but with 1% density of Earth's wind. I'm not sure what it means about the force/pressure it exerts on things. I'd assume at most 1%, perhaps 1/10000 than the same speed wind on Earth. Here's a releva

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[AmiMoJo]

They are taking about using it for exploring caves. Clearly they are looking to use existing natural shelter on Mars. Explore and prepare it before larger drones and people get there. Or maybe just explore for the sake of it - nobody has ever sent anything inside an off-world cave before.

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[FudRucker]

Ya, that thing would get blown around like a tumbleweed

Waste That Money

[zenlessyank]

So we don't have toooo.

big apples?

[harvey the nerd]

"...10.6 ounces (300 grams), equivalent to the weight of an apple."
most commercial apples in the US are 3 - 4 - 5 ounces

In Asia shit fertilized prize apples do better, even pounds, but 10.6 sounds heavy for a reference

Was original purpose caves

[stabiesoft]

Read the article. To me it seems more like the original intent was cave exploration. The rotors look protected if it were to run into a wall, and the roll feature would be ideal to crawl thru tiny areas. And seems a natural given China's increase in mining for raw materials. Then someone probably said hey I'll bet that thing would work on Mars too.

Doesn't seem robust to loose soil and sand

[TheStatsMan]

An interplanetary drone needs to minimize the likelihood of getting stuck most of all. You can get stuck in a few different ways. Not enough power to turn the wheels (or whatever), impeded on foreign objects, etc.

This type of drone seems to suffer in a couple respects. First, the amount of power you need to generate lift when you're stuck on something that's preventing you from rolling is very high - power you don't have. The amount of battery power it takes to fly at all is prohibitive, so you have to