The use of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) for inspection and surveillance missions has proved to be extremely useful, however, their usability is negatively impacted by the large power requirements and the limited operating time. This work describes the design and development of a novel hybrid aerial-ground vehicle, enabling multi-modal mobility and long operating time, suitable for long-endurance inspection and monitoring applications. The design consists of a MAV with two tiltable axles and four independent passive wheels, allowing it to fly, approach, land and move on flat and inclined surfaces, while using the same set of actuators for all modes of locomotion. In comparison to existing multi-modal designs with passive wheels, the proposed design enables a higher ground locomotion efficiency, provides a higher payload capacity, and presents one of the lowest mass increases due to the ground actuation mechanism. The vehicle's performance is evaluated through a series of real experiments, demonstrating its flying, ground locomotion and wall-climbing capabilities, and the energy consumption for all modes of locomotion is evaluated.

翻译：微型飞行器（MAV）在巡检与监视任务中已被证明极具实用性，然而其可用性受到大功率需求和有限运行时间的负面影响。本文描述了一种新型混合空地飞行器的设计与开发，该飞行器具备多模态机动能力与长运行时间，适用于长航时巡检与监控应用。该设计包含一个具有两个可倾斜轴和四个独立被动轮的MAV，使其能够飞行、接近、着陆并在平面和倾斜表面上移动，同时使用同一套执行器完成所有运动模式。与现有采用被动轮的多模态设计相比，所提出的设计实现了更高的地面运动效率，提供了更高的有效载荷能力，并且由于地面驱动机构而导致的质量增加处于最低水平之一。通过一系列真实实验对飞行器性能进行了评估，展示了其飞行、地面运动和壁面攀爬能力，并对所有运动模式的能耗进行了评估。