DALER: The flying robot that walks
The issue of how to use one robot in multiple terrains is an ongoing question in robotics research. In a paper published in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics today a team from LIS, EPFL and NCCR Robotics propose a new kind of flying robot that can also walk.
Called the DALER (Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot), the robot uses adaptive morphology inspired by the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, meaning that the wings have been actuated using a foldable skeleton mechanism covered with a soft fabric such such that they can be used both as wings and as legs (whegs). Read more.