Terrestrial Unmanned Roving Vertical Take-off and Landing (TURVTOL)

As the uses for autonomous rovers and drones has increased with their variability and utility,a fundamental gap has emerged - one which melds multi-modal capabilities into a singular unit. This project aims to fill that gap with the introduction of a multi-modal unmanned vehicle concept that can traverse ground quickly, hop or fly over obstacles and hazardous areas, and operate without the use of GPS or a human in the loop. The 2020 NASA Academy at Langley has developed a first iteration conceptual design of such a vehicle. This design has proven to be feasible through analyses confined to simulated environments.