Abstract
This paper addresses the development and the experimental results of an aerial ski robot, which can perform a somersault coupled with twist motion in the air. The robot is composed of three rigid links and two rotational joints driven by DC motors and contains control devices so that complicated motion can be performed in the air. To plan the motion of the robot, Fourier Basis Algorithm (FBA) is applied, which approximates the optimal joint trajectories by the finite terms of the Fourier basis. The joint trajectories to perform a twisting somersault from FBA were inputted to the robot, and the flight experiment was carried out. As the result, the robot achieved one backward somersault with half twist. From this, the validity of the analytical model and the motion planning method was shown.
