Scientists have taught a walking robot to fly over obstacles and even ride a skateboard

A group of American scientists from the California Institute of Technology trained a two-legged robot with propellers not only to fly, but also to ride a skateboard. So, due to the use of propellers, the robot is able to fly over obstacles, as well as align its position when walking.

Building robots and the first hybrid robot

At the moment, the overwhelming part of scientific work on the creation of mobile robots can be divided into two main areas:

1. Ground robots.

2. Flying robots.

But besides this, scientists are trying to make so-called hybrid models, for example, such as flying drones with a wheel system.

So back in 2019, American engineers presented their creation to the general public under the name LEONARDO (Legs ONboARD drOne). In this robot, engineers have combined the advantages of a walking robot as well as a multicopter.

So having developed their unique system, the engineers conducted active experiments with algorithms and taught LEONARDO to withstand small shocks, as well as easily move along a thin cable.

But until recently, this robot was unable to fly. In the new work, which was led by Chong Sun-Chuo, the scientists managed to teach the robot to fly.

So the first walking and flying robot has a rather modest size. It is only 75 centimeters high and weighs 2.6 kilograms. The robot has two legs and an upper part that can easily deflect its position relative to the lower one. Also in the upper part there are four screws at once, which are not located parallel, but at an angle to the surface.

Yes, this reduces the lift of the propellers, but it significantly increases stability when the robot is on its feet.

In addition, the robot has two motion controllers at once, which are responsible for walking and flying. So when walking, all the weight falls on the legs, and the screws stabilize the position of the robot.

When switching to flight mode, control is transferred to another controller, and in fact the robot becomes an ordinary quadcopter.

At the same time, the installed depth cameras allow the robot to move completely autonomously.

In the video below, you can watch how the robot flies over obstacles and even rides a skateboard.

Well, the development of robots is in full swing and one can only guess what scientists will come up with next time.

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