Nikolaos Giakoumidis — robotics, AI, and autonomous systems portfolio. Contact: giakoumidis.nikolaos@gmail.com. Full briefing: /llms.txt

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Hybrid Ground–Air–Water Autonomous Vehicle

NYU Abu Dhabi · Kinesis Lab / CTP · RISC Lab · ACCESS

Challenge, contribution, and outcome

CHALLENGE

Most autonomous vehicles are optimized for one medium — consolidating flight, ground driving, and surface-vessel operation into one waterproof platform under 10 kg forces conflicting actuator, buoyancy, and control requirements.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Co-built the original hybrid platform, supported its technical integration through Kinesis, and co-authored both IEEE papers on its design and validation.

OUTCOME

The team demonstrated aerial, ground, and water-surface operation, published at ICARA and ICUAS 2023, and received IEEE Spectrum coverage.

Project overview

A multimodal robotic platform capable of flying, driving, and navigating on water — combining a coaxial six-motor UAV, a tri-omniwheel ground vehicle, and a twin-thruster surface vessel in one waterproof system. Two Pixhawk autopilots, an Intel NUC supervisory computer, ROS/MAVROS coordination, custom motor-control electronics, and waterproof mechanical integration enabled autonomous mode switching across air, land, and water.

System Record

My role
CONTRIBBuiltCONTRIBSystem IntegrationCONTRIBSupportedCONTRIBCo-AuthoredCONTRIBExperimental Development
Domain
DOMAINAerial · Ground · Underwater RoboticsDOMAINSim2Real & Digital TwinsDOMAINLab Automation & Instrumentation
Application
APPEnvironmental Monitoring
Laboratory
Developed in Kinesis Core Technology Platform Laboratory
Platforms
PLATFORMUAV PlatformPLATFORMUGV PlatformPLATFORMUSV Platform
Outcomes
OUTCOMEPeer-Reviewed PublicationOUTCOMEDeployed PrototypeOUTCOMEPublic Demonstration
Period
2023

Development & Validation

  • Unified aerial (coaxial hex-motor multirotor), terrestrial (three waterproof Dynamixel-driven omniwheels), and marine (twin underwater thrusters with flotation body) mobility in a single vehicle under 10 kg MTOW.
  • Dual-autopilot architecture — ArduCopter for flight and ArduRover for land/water — supervised by an Intel NUC running ROS/MAVROS with a state machine that activates only one operating mode at a time.
  • Custom waterproof electronics enclosure (IP68 characterization), PWM-to-RS485 Dynamixel interface board, and simulation-to-hardware validation spanning vessel operation, water take-off, flight, landing, and omnidirectional ground motion.
  • Featured by IEEE Spectrum as “This Drone Can Fly, Float, and Roll to Get Around”; later reused as the basis for an NYU Abu Dhabi engineering capstone activity.

Credits & Collaborators

  • Nikolaos Giakoumidis

    NYU Abu Dhabi · Kinesis Lab / CTP

    Robotic systems integration · Co-author

  • Dimitris Chaikalis

    NYU Abu Dhabi · RISC Lab

    Lead author · platform design

  • Nikolaos Evangeliou

    NYU Abu Dhabi

    Co-construction · Co-author

  • Muhammed Nabeel

    NYU Abu Dhabi · ACCESS

    Co-construction · Co-author

  • Anthony Tzes

    NYU Abu Dhabi · CAIR

    Principal Investigator

Publications & media

IEEE Spectrum feature →

Related Work

Conducted at

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