Drone that flies and walks like a bat has many robot enthusiasts smiling. A group of scientists from Europe have been able to create one of the first drones that can fly and walk. The drone is called DALER, which stands for Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot, was inspired by the vampire bat.
A drone that flies and walks might soon be delivering your pizza or Amazon order. On January 20th, a team of scientists from LIS, EPFL and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics division in Switzerland, unveiled their latest creation – a drone that flies and walks.
In a lengthy paper published in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, the experts explained in their endless quest to have a robot that can function in multiple terrains, they have invented the DALER, which stands for Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot.
The group shared that they were inspired by locomotion techniques in the common vampire bat. The scientists have added wingerons on the tip on the wings, which rotate to allow the robot to walk when it is on the ground. The DALER can reach 20m/s in the air and 6cm/s on the floor with a maximum step distance of 6cm. According to the inventors:
“This new kind of flying robot that can also walk. Called the DALER (Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot), the robot uses adaptive morphology inspired by the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, meaning that the wings have been actuated using a foldable skeleton mechanism covered with a soft fabric such that they can be used both as wings and as legs (whegs).”
The scientists are hoping that their drone will be used after natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes in order to help rescue teams locate victims. In a press release, they explained their goal:
“It is hoped that a future application of the DALER might be to find victims in dangerous areas after a natural disaster. The DALER can be remotely deployed to fly to an affected area, and then can walk through a disaster zone (e.g. a damaged building) to locate victims, meaning that human rescue teams can concentrate their efforts where they are needed, rather than using time to search for victims in a dangerous environment.”
In the future the drone that flies and walks will be more autonomous and will be able to land on rough terrains.
