The latest in robot technology is here! This comes in the form of Daler or Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot, a robot modelled on the vampire bat that can walk and fly! It does this automatically by adapting to the environment that it’s placed in.
The robot’s skeleton mechanism is covered in fabric, meaning that it can change shape easily. It might one day be used as an aide in search-and-rescue missions.
Ludovic Daler at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) is a doctoral assistant working on the project. He said that creating robots that are able to adapt to specific terrains is a constant subject of research within the field.
According to Daler, the project aims to produce robots that can be used in search-and-rescue, surveillance and exploration. Thus, the robots will be met with terrains such as collapsed buildings or thick forests. The robots currently in place for these sorts of missions use ‘locomotion strategy’ and make simple motions such as walking, hovering or flying.
Plus, they’re only able to complete one action i.e. walking or flying etc, thus limiting the flexibility of the robot in question. This means that the newest ‘vampire bat’ robots, which are suited to so-called ‘adaptive morphology’ are much better equipped to deal with complex terrains. For instance, the flying robot could cover wide areas of space but not confined space; while the vampire bat bot can cover both.
The vampire bat robots can adapt by themselves to the terrain and can be controlled remotely. This means they could be used in the case of a natural disaster to seek out victims in danger zones. The result of this is that the people involved can focus on other jobs and other areas.
There are still modifications to be made to improve the bot. Researchers hope that one day the Daler will be able to hover and take off so that it can come back from missions by itself. They also hope to increase the mobility of the robot’s wings so that it flies more efficiently.
There’s no doubting that this technology means a breakthrough in the way in which we approach disaster areas. It could save many lives including both those of the victims and the rescue teams.
This post was brought to you by Gotronic, experts in the field of electronics and robotics.
Source: Daily Mail
The robot’s skeleton mechanism is covered in fabric, meaning that it can change shape easily. It might one day be used as an aide in search-and-rescue missions.
Ludovic Daler at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) is a doctoral assistant working on the project. He said that creating robots that are able to adapt to specific terrains is a constant subject of research within the field.
According to Daler, the project aims to produce robots that can be used in search-and-rescue, surveillance and exploration. Thus, the robots will be met with terrains such as collapsed buildings or thick forests. The robots currently in place for these sorts of missions use ‘locomotion strategy’ and make simple motions such as walking, hovering or flying.
Plus, they’re only able to complete one action i.e. walking or flying etc, thus limiting the flexibility of the robot in question. This means that the newest ‘vampire bat’ robots, which are suited to so-called ‘adaptive morphology’ are much better equipped to deal with complex terrains. For instance, the flying robot could cover wide areas of space but not confined space; while the vampire bat bot can cover both.
The vampire bat robots can adapt by themselves to the terrain and can be controlled remotely. This means they could be used in the case of a natural disaster to seek out victims in danger zones. The result of this is that the people involved can focus on other jobs and other areas.
There are still modifications to be made to improve the bot. Researchers hope that one day the Daler will be able to hover and take off so that it can come back from missions by itself. They also hope to increase the mobility of the robot’s wings so that it flies more efficiently.
There’s no doubting that this technology means a breakthrough in the way in which we approach disaster areas. It could save many lives including both those of the victims and the rescue teams.
This post was brought to you by Gotronic, experts in the field of electronics and robotics.
Source: Daily Mail