American researchers have created the M4, a real transducer that is able to reconfigure itself to change the pattern of movement. The researchers took inspiration from choukar partridges and crested hoatzins that use their wings to help themselves run, or even sea lions that use their flippers to walk.
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the DroneDrone They are generally limited to one means of locomotion, such as flying or rolling on the ground, which limits their usability. In order to make the robots more diverse, researchers from Caltech Institute In the United States in the creation of a device capable of transforming itself in order to choose among different modes of movement by choosing the most suitable or most efficient for the situation.
A detailed article on the robot was published in the journal Nature Communications. called M4 (Multimodal Navigation Morphobot), it incorporates artificial intelligence to decide which mode to choose. It has four wheels to roll on the ground like a carcaris the most effective mode in terms ofenergyenergy. However, these wheels can rotate 90 degrees and also contain propellers, turning the M4 into a drone.
Introducing the Caltech M4 robot that can transform into rolling on the ground or flying. In English, enable automatic translation of subtitles. © Nature
Multiple modes of transport
The device can also stand upright on two wheels, and the other two wheels are used to balance it, allowing it to see an obstacle without flying away. In addition, the M4 is articulated, allowing it to walk, crouch to stand under any obstacle, traverse rough terrain, and even use two wheels to grab an object, such as hands. The researchers counted eight distinct situations.
” Our goal was to push the boundaries of robotic locomotion by designing a system that displayed extraordinary mobility capabilities with a wide range of distinct locomotion modes. said Alireza Ramzani, one of the authors of the article. Researchers hope that the M4 will allow the development of robots specialized in search and rescue, space exploration, or simply delivery drones.
