Created a multipurpose drone that can not only fly, but crawl

Robotic drones that can not only fly, but if necessary to move on land, would have been much more effective and useful when performing certain specific tasks. However, the simple addition to the flying drone of the wheels though and would make him more mobile, but significantly increased its size and weight. So the staff of the Federal Polytechnic school of Lausanne appeared a completely different idea of creating rich drones. Their robot uses for movement along the ground, the wings that he's funny touches like the regular bat.

The creation of a drone DALER (Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot) researchers inspired by the structure bats are able to crawl on the ground, using her wings as legs. A more detailed study of the structure of the flying rodents experts have developed a special drone for flexible wings whose ends are fixed on the rotating joints. Changing the design of the wings allowed the creators to solve the problem of changing center of gravity that differs depending on the conditions in which the drone is in flight or on the ground.

"The robot uses a special adaptive wing morphology, which allows him not only to fly long distances, but also to carry out the ground movement," explains project leader Ludovic Daler from the Federal Polytechnic school of Lausanne.

"The design of the robot we learned from the structure of the conventional bat, Desmodus rotundus, is able to move both in the air and on the ground surface.

Experimenting with various ratios the distribution of mass to maximize energy efficiency, the researchers picked the best distance between the center of mass and the hinges, which are attached to "vingeren", that is, the very ends of the wings, by which the robot can move on land. As a result, an optimal mass balance allows drone DALER to reach speeds of 70 km/h in the air and up to 6 cm/s on the ground, with a maximum step length of approximately 6 cm.

The team that created the multifunctional robot DALER believes that its adaptability to the possibility of flight and movement on the ground can make it a great assistant for rescuers in the search for people in difficult circumstances due to natural disasters. The robot will be able to fly on emergency sites, to fly into damaged buildings and already inside move on the surface in search of victims to send rescue teams.

Robotics from the Federal Polytechnic school of Lausanne are not going to rest on our laurels and are already considering the option of creating a fully Autonomous drone, able to fly and return back to base.

Source: hi-news.ru