A team from University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab has designed a new autonomous robot capable of flying, walking and (in the near future) grasping small objects, using a blend of those skills to mimic the versatile movements of birds and insects.
Dubbed Picobug, the adaptable 30-gram bot combines the flight of a Dragonfly quadrotor and the crawl of Dragon Innovation’s Dash robot, enabling the creature to not be limited to one mode of locomotion. The motor that drives these feet can get them going forwards or backwards, while the rotors can yaw the robot to steer it left and right.
In terms of performance, Picobug can fly up to 13 mph and skitter across a 10-foot-long table in under 20 seconds. Right now, the tiny ‘copter can navigate confined spaces, such as inspecting a clogged pipe, an air duct or a hole of some sort. The device may even be able to take on tasks like exploring nuclear reactors and similar facilities, and down the road, lending a hand in search and rescue missions.
As for its battery life, Picobug uses 10.6 watts while hovering and 0.6 watt when crawling — this equates to roughly six minutes of flight time, 45 minutes on the ground.
“Because of its small size, the Picobug can explore environments that other robots would not be able to access,” researcher Yash Mulgaonkar recently told IEEE Spectrum. “Its ability to switch between flying and crawling modes gives it greater flexibility in its motion planning.”
[Image: UPenn’s GRASP Lab]