DALER robot can walk and fly like a vampire bat
DALER (Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot) is the latest swiss engineering marvel. It's a robot that can walk and fly as well; and derives its inspiration from the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus. The team led by Ludovic Daler published a paper in #-Link-Snipped-# titled 'A bioinspired multi-modal flying and walking robot'. Daler had already demonstrated a flying robot few years ago that could walk on the ground by rotating wings. But the new robot takes a step further by having wings that and retract. Ludovic Daler says that his team aims to make 'adaptive deployable wings' - that is, the shape of the wings can be modified to augment the forward flight, hover flight or even displacement on terrain.
DALER has been designed to be used in the search and rescue operations. Its dual mode of movement allows it to fly longer distances and perform surveys in a very short time period. If it's unable to fly over certain areas, it can transform itself and start 'walking' on the surface. You'd guess that the span of the wings creates problems for the machine to fly in certain areas. The study of bats helped researchers design foldable wings that would also help the robot walk.
Watching DALER walk on the ground ain't a pretty sight; but you'll appreciate the crazy engineering that went into design the wings. DALER's been designed to reach up to 20 m/s and on the ground speeds of about 6 cm/s. Though that may not be very impressive speed, you'll appreciate that it can be quite fast at the rescue sites where other machines fail. Check out the video below that shows DALER in action.
DALER has been designed to be used in the search and rescue operations. Its dual mode of movement allows it to fly longer distances and perform surveys in a very short time period. If it's unable to fly over certain areas, it can transform itself and start 'walking' on the surface. You'd guess that the span of the wings creates problems for the machine to fly in certain areas. The study of bats helped researchers design foldable wings that would also help the robot walk.
Watching DALER walk on the ground ain't a pretty sight; but you'll appreciate the crazy engineering that went into design the wings. DALER's been designed to reach up to 20 m/s and on the ground speeds of about 6 cm/s. Though that may not be very impressive speed, you'll appreciate that it can be quite fast at the rescue sites where other machines fail. Check out the video below that shows DALER in action.
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