This paper presents the design of a 6-DOF all-terrain micro aerial vehicle
and two control strategies for multimodal flight, which are experimentally
validated. The micro aerial vehicle is propelled by four motors and controlled
by a single servo for the control of the cycloidal rotors(cyclorotors) speed
and lift direction. Despite the addition of the servo, the system remains
underactuated. To address the traditional underactuation problem of cycloidal
rotor aircraft, we increase the number of control variables. We propose a PID
and a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) framework to tackle the model's
nonlinearities and achieve control of attitude, position, and their
derivatives.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
multimodal control strategy for 6-DOF all-terrain micro aerial vehicles. The
vehicle can operate in aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic modes and can adapt to
different terrains and environmental conditions. Our approach enhances the
vehicle's performance in each mode of operation, and the results show the
advantages of the proposed strategy compared to other control strategies