“Tiny Little Multi-Modal Picobug Walks, Flies, Grabs Stuff” on IEEE Spectrum

Tiny Little Multi-Modal Picobug Walks, Flies, Grabs Stuff

By: Evan Ackerman | Posted 29 Mar 2016

Bipedal walking has worked out pretty well for humans. I guess. We’re kind of stuck with it until someone comes up with something better. And the really frustrating part is that all kinds of animals have already come up with better ways of getting around: specifically, birds and insects, who use wings to fly as well as legs and feet to walk. This multimodality makes birds and insects inherently versatile and adaptable, which is why you can find them doing quite well just about everywhere.

Some of the most versatile and adaptable robots also exhibit multimodal characteristics: they can fly and climb, or jump and glide, or even fly and swim. But flying and walking seems to be by far the most useful combination, as evidenced by the variety of animals that can do it, and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Laboratory have designed a new robot called Picobug that can fly, walk, and even (soon) grab on to stuff.

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