Work

Nonlocomotory Robotic Strategies for Dynamic Rotation Control in Terrestrial Robots: A Review

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Terrestrial robots are used in diverse environments, including disaster sites, space exploration, and complex terrain, where rapid body rotations are essential for maintaining stability and mobility. However, conventional locomotory strategies are often limited by ground contact, actuation delays, and terrain uncertainty conditions. To address these limitations, nonlocomotory strategies achieve rotation without relying on ground contact. Instead, they utilize rotation control structures such as reaction wheels, robotic tails, reaction bars, robotic arms, robotic legs, and thrusters, which are considered and defined in this review, to generate torques for rotational control. This review categorizes these structures based on their underlying mechanisms and analyzes their applications for body rotation in terrestrial robots. In addition, their functional performances in aerial reorientation, steady‐state locomotion stabilization, perturbation recovery, and agility enhancement are compared. Representative performance metrics and the associated control strategies are also summarized to support cross‐structure evaluation. By summarizing existing research, this review provides a reference framework for selecting and developing dynamic rotation control structures that improve stability, robustness, and maneuverability in terrestrial robots.

Source: Advanced Robotics Research

DOI: 10.1002/adrr.202500095