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Multi-purpose wings allow flying robot to walk across rough terrain
- markcmyers 13y agoAwkward gait, brilliantly elegant design.
- codezero 13y agoLooks a bit like a bat when they are on the ground, pretty interesting stuff.
- andrewflnr 13y agoNow that you mention it, if any aircraft in the history of mankind deserves the name "Bat Wing", this is it.
- hallieatrobohub 13y agoThis project uses a unique design approach called 'adaptive morphology', where one part of a robot’s structure is adaptable and shared between different modes of operation. Cool!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sp332 13y agoThe prototype shown in the video above can move forward at 0.2 m/s (0.7 BL/s) What is a BL/s? Body-length per second?
- robotgal 13y agoThat's right.
- oh_teh_meows 13y agoImagine this being used on commercial aircrafts... Captain: We have now landed at SFO. We will now taxi to gate A3. Passengers: OH CRAP. bumps up and down But in all seriousness, this could be a precursor to a more fluid form of wing morphing, i.e. without joints. Sort of like Eddy in Stealth, which morph its wings to direct jet exhaust downwards to create vertical lift.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoWe have achieved real, functional, practical Transformers. Everyone can retire now; Science is over.
- ryandoom 13y agoI've fallen and I can't get up! Looks cool, but based on the design once it's on the ground I can't see how it could generate enough airspeed for lift to get back in the air. Designed for single use ?
- dkokelley 13y agoI imagine a good use case could be for search and rescue in rough/inaccessible terrain. Imagine a building has collapsed trapping people inside. A flight-capable vehicle could quickly navigate to the area, and once it reaches the rubble, it can crawl in, searching for survivors.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago> I've fallen and I can't get up! How many of us are old enough to get that? Consider the end point of a mission; getting there is more important perhaps than getting back, especially for a drone. If everything work out, they can be retrieved manually later. Or perhaps they just need to find a cliff.
- theon144 13y agoI kind of fail to see the advantage of being able to walk given that the robot can fly - I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of any.
- im3w1l 13y agoMaybe it could lower energy use.