LEONARDO, the bipedal robot, can ride a skateboard and walk a slackline

Researchers astatine Caltech person built a bipedal robot that combines walking with flying to make a caller benignant of locomotion, making it exceptionally nimble and susceptible of analyzable movements.

Part walking robot, portion flying drone, the recently developed LEONARDO (short for LEgs ONboARD drOne, oregon LEO for short) tin locomotion a slackline, hop, and adjacent thrust a skateboard. Developed by a squad astatine Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST), LEO is the archetypal robot that uses multi-joint legs and propeller-based thrusters to execute a good grade of power implicit its balance.

A insubstantial astir the LEO robot was published online connected October 6 and was featured connected the October 2021 screen of Science Robotics.

"We drew inspiration from nature. Think astir the mode birds are capable to flap and hop to navigate telephone lines," says Soon-Jo Chung, corresponding writer and Bren Professor of Aerospace and Control and Dynamical Systems. "A analyzable yet intriguing behaviour happens arsenic birds determination betwixt walking and flying. We wanted to recognize and larn from that."

"There is simply a similarity betwixt however a quality wearing a pitchy suit controls their legs and feet erstwhile landing oregon taking disconnected and however LEO uses synchronized power of distributed propeller-based thrusters and leg joints," Chung adds. "We wanted to survey the interface of walking and flying from the dynamics and power standpoint."

Bipedal robots are capable to tackle analyzable real-world terrains by utilizing the aforesaid benignant of movements that humans use, similar jumping oregon moving oregon adjacent climbing stairs, but they are stymied by unsmooth terrain. Flying robots easy navigate pugnacious terrain by simply avoiding the ground, but they look their ain acceptable of limitations: High vigor depletion during formation and constricted payload capacity. "Robots with a multimodal locomotion quality are capable to determination done challenging environments much efficiently than accepted robots by appropriately switching betwixt their disposable means of movement. In particular, LEO aims to span the spread betwixt the 2 disparate domains of aerial and bipedal locomotion that are not typically intertwined successful existing robotic systems," says Kyunam Kim, postdoctoral researcher astatine Caltech and co-lead writer of the Science Robotics paper.

By utilizing a hybrid question that is determination betwixt walking and flying, the researchers get the champion of some worlds successful presumption of locomotion. LEO's lightweight legs instrumentality accent disconnected of its thrusters by supporting the bulk of the weight, but due to the fact that the thrusters are controlled synchronously with limb joints, LEO has uncanny balance.

"Based connected the types of obstacles it needs to traverse, LEO tin take to usage either walking oregon flying, oregon blend the 2 arsenic needed. In addition, LEO is susceptible of performing antithetic locomotion maneuvers that adjacent successful humans necessitate a mastery of balance, similar walking connected a slackline and skateboarding," says Patrick Spieler, co-lead writer of the Science Robotics insubstantial and a erstwhile subordinate of Chung's radical who is presently with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech for NASA.

LEO stands 2.5 feet gangly and is equipped with 2 legs that person 3 actuated joints, on with 4 propeller thrusters mounted astatine an space astatine the robot's shoulders. When a idiosyncratic walks, they set the presumption and predisposition of their legs to origin their halfway of wide to determination guardant portion the body's equilibrium is maintained. LEO walks successful this mode arsenic well: The propellers guarantee that the robot is upright arsenic it walks, and the limb actuators alteration the presumption of the legs to determination the robot's halfway of wide guardant done the usage of a synchronized walking and flying controller. In flight, the robot uses its propellers unsocial and flies similar a drone.

"Because of its propellers, you tin poke oregon prod LEO with a batch of unit without really knocking the robot over," says Elena-Sorina Lupu (MS '21), postgraduate pupil astatine Caltech and co-author of the Science Robotics paper. The LEO task was started successful the summertime of 2019 with the authors of the Science Robotics insubstantial and 3 Caltech undergraduates who participated successful the task done the Institute's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program.

Credit: California Institute of Technology

Next, the squad plans to amended the show of LEO by creating a much rigid limb plan that is susceptible of supporting much of the robot's value and expanding the thrust unit of the propellers. In addition, they anticipation to marque LEO much autonomous truthful that the robot tin recognize however overmuch of its value is supported by legs and however overmuch needs to beryllium supported by propellers erstwhile walking connected uneven terrain.

The researchers besides program to equip LEO with a recently developed drone landing power algorithm that utilizes heavy neural networks. With a amended knowing of the environment, LEO could marque its ain decisions astir the champion operation of walking, flying, oregon hybrid question that it should usage to determination from 1 spot to different based connected what is safest and what uses the slightest magnitude of energy.

"Right now, LEO uses propellers to equilibrium during walking, which means it uses vigor reasonably inefficiently. We are readying to amended the limb plan to marque LEO locomotion and equilibrium with minimal assistance of propellers," says Lupu, who volition proceed moving connected LEO passim her Ph.D. program.

In the existent world, the exertion designed for LEO could foster the improvement of adaptive landing cogwheel systems composed of controlled limb joints for aerial robots and different types of flying vehicles. The squad envisions that aboriginal Mars rotorcraft could beryllium equipped with legged landing cogwheel truthful that the assemblage equilibrium of these aerial robots tin beryllium maintained arsenic they onshore connected sloped oregon uneven terrains, thereby reducing the hazard of nonaccomplishment nether challenging landing conditions.

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