The researchers at the University of Minnesota from the Center of Distributed Robotics have tried to give wings to the dreams of many. Only a prototype for now, they have developed a miniature robot that travels on the ground, and within seconds can transform itself into a helicopter. The process is reversible and the conversion time for the robot changing into a helicopter is approximately 3 seconds.

Robot Changing Into A Helicopter: The Technical Details

 

 

This little rolling robot runs on two wheels and is equipped with two independent motor systems. It appears that designing a robot with two motors was much easier than creating one with transmission, which could switch between the high speeds required for flying mode and low speed required for wheel mode. It is a perfect blend of ground based mobile robots and features best qualities of air robots. The reason being ground-based robots have limitations due to their inability to get over obstacles like rocks, grass, or sand, while air-based robots can mostly cover only short distances due to limited battery lives. This rugged model is most suitable for hostile situations and boasts of applications in search and rescue, military and security uses. The small size and low weight of this mini robot makes it highly portable and user friendly.

While at work, it can run in ground mode for approximately 3-4 hours, and 10 minutes in air mode using its battery life. In the ground mode, this small sized robot folds in its fan and exposes its wheels at the bottom and on the top. This allows the robot to save batteries instead of using the high-energy flying mode. Unlike the current design, the future versions are expected to feature a simplified structure while focusing on integrating independent path planning system in the robot. This will be like an autopilot that will enable it to choose its own path to commute to a specific destination.

Though, it is true that researchers have still not been able to figure out that how to transform a jet plane or a full sized car into a robot, the development of this miniature robot seems to be the first step. And who knows this discovery may soon open the doors for such a development. However, as it took nearly $20,000 for the creation of this tiny version, we can imagine the heavy sum that will be required to fabricate a full-sized robot.

Overall, this unnamed mobile robot is an amazing innovation and can be very useful for government and private industries, especially for security purposes. By putting a camera on the robot, its surveillance capabilities can be enhanced, which will come in handy for rescue operations. Moreover, its ground to air feature greatly improves the mobility on a rough terrain.

Alia Haley is a writer who also happens to be a technology buff. She is very fond of notebook computers and recently bought a Lenovo ThinkPad.

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