Posted 05.16.2011 at 2:00 pm
7 Comments
Rolling Robot Helicopter
This robot's two configurations allow it to roll along a surface, then to stand upright and take off like a helicopter.
via IEEE Spectrum
Not sure whether to use a cylindrical crawler or a buzzing helicopter for your remote sensing needs? This robot makes the choice easier, incorporating both abilities. In the video below, you can watch as it rolls along, then tips up vertically to take off like a helicopter.
Related Articles
Tags
Technology, Rebecca Boyle, blackouts, caterpillar, flying robot, future of robots, helicopters, quadcopter, robots, rolling wheelsGround robots can perform autonomous sentry duties more efficiently than an airborne bot, and they’re somewhat easier and cheaper to design. But flying robots are more agile and can navigate around obstacles--or even climb stairs. An ideal robot would be able to do both, and this one fits the bill.
But it was neither easy nor cheap to pull this off, IEEE reports. It was too hard to build a motor system capable of slow-speed forward ground motion as well as the high-speed rotor action required for vertical flight, so the designers had to make two. Just getting the robot to stand up was a challenge — the mechanism that folds the rotors down cost $20,000 to make, according to IEEE.
Future designs would ideally be cheaper and less complicated, able to quietly roll around before unfurling into a sinister Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low helicopter.
[IEEE]
7 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2013: American Energy Independence
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson On Being Told To Remove 3-D Printed Gun Plans: "We Win"
- Thieves Stole $45 Million From ATMs Because The U.S. Uses Absurd 40-Year-Old Technology
- A California State Senator Is Trying To Outlaw 3-D Printed Guns
- 2013 Invention Awards: Family Flier
- Autonomous X-47B Jet Fighter Makes Historic First Launch From An Aircraft Carrier
- U.S. Navy Spends $37 Billion On A Ship That Barely Works
- Time-Lapse GIFs Show Earth Transforming Over 25 Years
- How To Turn An AK-47 Into A Soup Ladle
- How The World's First 3-D Printed Gun Works
- Iran Unveils Absurd New Stealth Drone
Most Emailed
Technology
- 7 Reasons Why 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Is A Beginner's Guide To Star Trek [Spoiler Alert]
- America's Road To Energy Independence, Part 1
- Video: MIT's Cheetah Robot Trots, Then Gallops
- Mapping The Simpsons' Slow Descent Into Suckitude
- Google Bets $10.7 Million On Drone Intelligence
- Concept Skyscraper Generates Its Own Energy, Looks Like A Toilet Brush
- Robot Plane Flies Humans 500 Miles
- Google And NASA Team Up In Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab
- How NASA Could Save Kepler
- Inside The Army's Sunshine Simulator
Most Viewed
Technology
- 7 Reasons Why 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Is A Beginner's Guide To Star Trek [Spoiler Alert]
- America's Road To Energy Independence, Part 1
- Video: MIT's Cheetah Robot Trots, Then Gallops
- Mapping The Simpsons' Slow Descent Into Suckitude
- Google Bets $10.7 Million On Drone Intelligence
- Concept Skyscraper Generates Its Own Energy, Looks Like A Toilet Brush
- Robot Plane Flies Humans 500 Miles
- Google And NASA Team Up In Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab
- How NASA Could Save Kepler
- Inside The Army's Sunshine Simulator
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Either the pilot hasn't got his wings yet, or there are still some control issues to be worked out here, seemed a bit wobbly. Also who's the lucky guy that gets to run into the insurgent hideout, yell "time out!" and mount the "training gear"? HaHa
Obviously, the previous commenter has never designed anything. To accomplish this kind of performance in a prototype is really very good. And I don't think anyone is claiming it's ready to go into an "insurgent hideout" yet. Robots are definitely the way to go for dangerous missions. They keep our police officers and soldiers out of harm's way. We should applaud any efforts to do so.
I'm loving it !
They should put a vbar or a skookum onto this thing for super stability. Man this is so cool, wish i could fly it, at least i have my own whirlies here at home. too cool !!!
hey !..... but the video doesn't show the one in the concept picture, i don't like contras that much.... :(
add a small powerful explosive...sneak into area at night n take out a room full of insurgents
mm... put a human with a seat and controls in a gyro ball, then you have your first mobile "flying car" so-to-speak. attach guns to the exterior of the gyro and suddenly you have a militarized ground and air support vehicle. already turned into a weapon... i wonder how devastated the inventors would be... maybe nobel prize v2.0
@ee.phil Jezzz Phil can't you take a joke, and yes I understand the issues involved, I am an engineer, (although not a controls engineer). I realise just deriving the CL transfer functions here would drive most people mad. That said, my overall point was that personally I would have polished it up a bit before showing off.