Three-Dimensional Swarm Control for Ground-Air Transitions in Hybrid Aerial-Ground Robots

Hybrid aerial-ground robots, offering both ground locomotion and aerial flight, have been extensively studied in the field of engineering tasks, but they remain under-explored in swarm-control scenarios. This is due to the fact that traditional cluster control methods are predominantly based on two-dimensional planes, making them difficult to apply to hybrid aerial-ground robots in three-dimensional scenarios. To overcome these limitations, a novel model that integrates Boids-model swarm dynamics, control strategies, and path planning methods for hybrid aerial-ground robots was proposed, enabling the extension of conventional two-dimensional swarm models into three-dimensional space. Specifically, an approach that, for the first time, assigns independent Z-axis (altitude) path planning to the swarm leader was introduced, thereby achieving a seamless ground-air transition and effectively integrating ground and aerial strategies. Simulation results validate the feasibility and robustness of the proposed method.