Robotics Lab HyTAQ

Robotics Lab, Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) HyTAQ (1)

Robotics Lab, Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) HyTAQ (2)

Not for saleUniversity research prototype, first shown in 2012 and described in an ICRA 2013 paper.

Not for sale (research)Not programmableFly + rollRolling cageQuadrotor

Not for saleShipping: Not for sale. A research prototype that was never sold.

Remote control: Not possible. Research prototype.

Illinois Tech news (2012) ↗Kalantari and Spenko, ICRA 2013 paper ↗Kalantari and Spenko, IEEE Transactions on Robotics 2014 ↗US patent 9,061,558 ↗New Atlas (2012) ↗

Overview

HyTAQ is a small quadrotor hinged inside a cylindrical cage of polycarbonate and carbon fiber. On the ground the rotors pitch forward and push the cage along like a wheel, and when it meets an obstacle it flies over it. Rolling only has to overcome rolling resistance, so in 2012 tests it ran 27 minutes rolling against about 5 minutes in the air. The cage also protects the propellers in crashes. NASA JPL's Team CoSTAR used a HyTAQ-style cage in an early version of its Rollocopter.

Specifications

Category	Drones · Fly + drive or walk
Released	2012
Country	USA
Availability	Not for sale (research)
Programmability	No programmability
Built-in autonomy	None / scripted · Moves only when controlled, or plays preset motions
LLM support	None · No built-in LLM and no SDK to connect one.
Best for	Professionals & labs
Vision sensors	Camera
Actuators	Brushless / direct-drive motors
Audio	No audio
Compute type	Unknown
Remote control	Not programmable
Size	Not published. The cage is a cylinder of polycarbonate and carbon fiber, and the patent analysis assumes a cage mass of about 25% of the quadrotor.
Drive	Quadrotor with four 11.1 V brushless motors (1700 kV, 75 W) and 5 x 3 in three-blade propellers. A free-spinning cylindrical cage is joined to the quadrotor by a shaft with two rotating joints, so the same rotors fly it and push the cage along the ground.
Compute	Not published
Vision	Onboard camera (model not published)
Lidar	None
Sensors	Not published
Runtime	About 5 min flying versus 27 min rolling in the 2012 tests. The patent reports 50 min of rolling on linoleum. 3S 1350 mAh LiPo battery.
Speed	Most efficient rolling speed about 3 m/s. Top speed not published.
SDK	None public