A Triphibious Robot With a Novel Rolling-Gripper for Direct-to-Hand Delivery in Multidomain Rescue

Rescue and delivery missions in complex multidomain environments pose significant challenges for traditional robots, particularly regarding mobility limitations and the lack of precise interaction capabilities for final-stage delivery. To address this, we propose a triphibious robot equipped with a novel rolling-gripper, enabling versatile locomotion across air, ground, and water surfaces. The proposed rolling-gripper serves multifunctional purposes: it functions as a wheel for terrestrial mobility; acts as a gripper to perch and crawl on infrastructure or tree branches for the target area search and inspection; and operates as a manipulator to grasp supplies and deliver them directly into the victim’s hand via an internal roller mechanism. This unique capability facilitates “last-meter” precise handover in water and ruin rescue scenarios, reducing failure risks where water waves drift supplies out of reach or where confined spaces block bulky robots from bringing essential aid to the victim. This article presents a mechanical analysis of the rolling-gripper mechanism, alongside kinematic and dynamic modeling of the robot’s various motion modes. Experimental results validate the robot’s triphibious mobility, its capability to perch and crawl on pole-like structures, and its specific efficacy in performing direct-to-hand delivery on water surfaces and within confined spaces, highlighting its significant potential for search-and-rescue in multidomain complex environments.