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He can even skate and slackline.
Take it away from me
Researchers at Caltech have opened the gates to hell and allowed a creepy robot that can walk on two slender feet and even fly to enter our world.
The terrifying biped, called LEONARD (Drone LEgs ONboard), or LEO for short, is essentially the bottom half of a humanoid robot attached to a flying drone.
The goal of the researchers was not to come up with the next mass-marketable invention, but to test new means of locomotion for robots intended to perform hazardous work and explore hard-to-reach places.
Did we mention he can skateboard and slackline too?
Like a bird
The team goes so far as to suggest that their chilling invention could transport equipment to the surface of other worlds, including Mars or Titan, Saturn’s moon.
“We took our inspiration from nature,” Soon-Jo Chung, corresponding author of the article published this week in the journal Science Robotics, said in a statement.
“Complex but intriguing behavior occurs when birds move between walking and flying,” Chung added. “We wanted to understand and learn from it. “
One of the main challenges for the team was to conserve enough energy to allow the robot to fly while covering a certain distance on the ground.
“Depending on the types of obstacles he has to cross, LEO can choose to use walk or fly, or mix the two as needed,” said Patrick Spieler, co-lead author, in the release.
“In addition, LEO is able to perform unusual locomotive maneuvers which, even in humans, require mastery of balance, such as walking on a slackline and skateboarding,” he added.
Next, the team hopes to reduce LEO’s weight and increase the thrust of its propellers to allow it to cover even more ground.
This is exactly what we needed: an apocalyptic murderous drone that can not only fly but also run to catch up with us.
READ MORE: LEONARDO, the bipedal robot, can skate and walk on a slackline [Caltech]
Learn more about robots: Singaporeans furious over police robots teaching people about social distancing
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