LEO carves out a new type of locomotion somewhere between walking and flying.
Researchers at Caltech have created a fearsome robot that can walk on two slender legs and even fly around our world. The two-legged machine, called LEONARDO (Legs ONboARD drOne) or LEO for short, is a humanoid attached to a flying drone.
The goal of the researchers is not to invent the next mass-market invention. On the contrary, they want to try new ways to move robots so that they can perform dangerous tasks and explore hard-to-reach places.
Another interesting fact about LEO is that it can even skateboard and go slackline. Scientists even believe that the machine could help explore space objects such as Mars and the Moon.
“We were inspired by nature,” said Sun-Joe Chung, author of an article published this week in the journal Science Robotics. “Depending on the types of obstacles he has to overcome, LEO can choose whether to walk, fly or combine both,” he added.
