LEO THE ROBOT
LEO THE HOPING, FLYING AND SKATING ROBOT
Meet LEO: a robot that can walk on two legs, fly, hop, skateboard, and even slackline.
Caltech
This combination of drones and traditional robots was developed by a team at the Caltech Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies, and its creators claim that LEO is the first legged robot with multiple joints and propeller motors that help it fly and enable it to do things. high balance control. They describe the breadth of LEO's capabilities and potential in a new article published this week in Science Robotics.
Caltech engineers modeled the design of the LEO, short for LEONARDO (LEGS ONboard drOne), after a bird that can move and maneuver with relative ease in different environments.
"Think about how birds can swing and jump to move on telephone lines," said Son-Joe Chung, newspaper writer and professor at Caltech, in a press release. "The complex yet interesting behavior occurs when birds move between walking and flying." They want to transfer these abilities to robots that will allow them to traverse complex landscapes.
Its 2.5-foot-high and two-foot carbon fiber LEO is divided into three driven joints. There is a heel design on the top of the robot's leg that stabilizes the robot when it's stationary and makes it look like he's wearing little pants.
There are sensors to help it work indoors and outdoors; In fact, LEO is adorned with sensors from head to toe. It has an on-board computer, controls for the propeller and foot motor, inertia meter, battery and stereo navigation camera. Four-angled propellers are attached to its shoulders that act a bit like wings - they allow the robot to fly and stay upright as it walks. Information from sensors and cameras is sent back to LEO via a feedback control algorithm that tells LEO what to do next.
The balance of the robot is still virgin. When LEO walks, it sways. You can pierce it or try it on and it won't fall off. This type of balance allows him to perform actions that are considered difficult even for humans, such as skateboarding and slackline shuffling.
Caltech
Imagine that when we walk we shift our weight, bend forward or bend our knees, and adjust the position and orientation of our feet to maintain balance. LEO does something similar.
The most advanced two-legged robots can handle a variety of terrain that can be rocky, suddenly tilted up and down, or twist and turn like a maze like a human: skillfully alternate between jumping, running, and climbing. In the past, flying robots have overcome this challenge by avoiding the ground completely, but they also have their limits; especially they consume a lot of energy during flight. The Boston Dynamics robot can even park.
“Robots with multimodal mobility can move more efficiently through challenging environments than traditional robots by switching between available modes of transportation,” said Kiunam Kim, postdoc at Caltech and author of the report. "LEO aims to bridge the gap between two distinct areas of air traffic and bipods that are not normally associated with existing robotic systems."
So what's the point of this smart bot? Disassembled into individual parts, the individual mechanisms that make up the LEO can be used independently to improve landing gear systems for existing robots and other types of aircraft. This could even be extended to future rotorcraft on Mars, for example, the team said. LEO can also inspect, repair, or replace hard-to-reach areas such as roofs, high-voltage telephone lines, or bridges.
But with advances in robotics, LEO can get better and better. The team already had plans to redesign their legs to be stiffer and withstand more weight. They also thought of adding traction to the propeller.
Finally, they are looking at ways to make LEO more autonomous so it can look around its surroundings to self-regulate how much weight it carries and when to switch from walking to flying. The team plans to install a drone landing algorithm on LEO that contains a deep neural network that can help LEO calculate the best runway using current speed and position. And if they integrate additional sensors that can help LEO better understand the state of the environment, LEO can decide for themselves which combination of walking and flying is the safest and most energy efficient way to achieve it.
Meet LEO: a robot that can walk on two legs, fly, hop, skateboard, and even slackline.
|
| Caltech |
This combination of drones and traditional robots was developed by a team at the Caltech Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies, and its creators claim that LEO is the first legged robot with multiple joints and propeller motors that help it fly and enable it to do things. high balance control. They describe the breadth of LEO's capabilities and potential in a new article published this week in Science Robotics.
Caltech engineers modeled the design of the LEO, short for LEONARDO (LEGS ONboard drOne), after a bird that can move and maneuver with relative ease in different environments.
"Think about how birds can swing and jump to move on telephone lines," said Son-Joe Chung, newspaper writer and professor at Caltech, in a press release. "The complex yet interesting behavior occurs when birds move between walking and flying." They want to transfer these abilities to robots that will allow them to traverse complex landscapes.
Its 2.5-foot-high and two-foot carbon fiber LEO is divided into three driven joints. There is a heel design on the top of the robot's leg that stabilizes the robot when it's stationary and makes it look like he's wearing little pants.
There are sensors to help it work indoors and outdoors; In fact, LEO is adorned with sensors from head to toe. It has an on-board computer, controls for the propeller and foot motor, inertia meter, battery and stereo navigation camera. Four-angled propellers are attached to its shoulders that act a bit like wings - they allow the robot to fly and stay upright as it walks. Information from sensors and cameras is sent back to LEO via a feedback control algorithm that tells LEO what to do next.
The balance of the robot is still virgin. When LEO walks, it sways. You can pierce it or try it on and it won't fall off. This type of balance allows him to perform actions that are considered difficult even for humans, such as skateboarding and slackline shuffling.
|
| Caltech |
Imagine that when we walk we shift our weight, bend forward or bend our knees, and adjust the position and orientation of our feet to maintain balance. LEO does something similar.
The most advanced two-legged robots can handle a variety of terrain that can be rocky, suddenly tilted up and down, or twist and turn like a maze like a human: skillfully alternate between jumping, running, and climbing. In the past, flying robots have overcome this challenge by avoiding the ground completely, but they also have their limits; especially they consume a lot of energy during flight. The Boston Dynamics robot can even park.
“Robots with multimodal mobility can move more efficiently through challenging environments than traditional robots by switching between available modes of transportation,” said Kiunam Kim, postdoc at Caltech and author of the report. "LEO aims to bridge the gap between two distinct areas of air traffic and bipods that are not normally associated with existing robotic systems."
So what's the point of this smart bot? Disassembled into individual parts, the individual mechanisms that make up the LEO can be used independently to improve landing gear systems for existing robots and other types of aircraft. This could even be extended to future rotorcraft on Mars, for example, the team said. LEO can also inspect, repair, or replace hard-to-reach areas such as roofs, high-voltage telephone lines, or bridges.
But with advances in robotics, LEO can get better and better. The team already had plans to redesign their legs to be stiffer and withstand more weight. They also thought of adding traction to the propeller.
Finally, they are looking at ways to make LEO more autonomous so it can look around its surroundings to self-regulate how much weight it carries and when to switch from walking to flying. The team plans to install a drone landing algorithm on LEO that contains a deep neural network that can help LEO calculate the best runway using current speed and position. And if they integrate additional sensors that can help LEO better understand the state of the environment, LEO can decide for themselves which combination of walking and flying is the safest and most energy efficient way to achieve it.
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