Hybrid Driving-Flying Robots Could Go Beyond the Flying Car

Whether they're drivers ed online swooping in to deliver packages or spotting victims in disaster zones, swarms of flying robots could have a range of important applications in the future, a new study found. The robots drivers ed online can transition from driving to flying without colliding with each other and could offer benefits beyond the traditional flying-car concepts of sci-fi lore, the study said. The ability to both fly and walk is common drivers ed online in nature. For instance, many birds, insects and other animals can do both. Robots with similar versatility could fly over impediments on the ground or drivers ed online  drive under overhead obstacles. But drivers ed online currently, robots that are good at one mode of transportation are usually bad at others, study lead author Brandon Araki, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of drivers ed online Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and his colleagues said in their new study. [The 6 drivers ed online Strangest Robots Ever Created] drivers ed online Advertisement The researchers previously developed a robot named the "flying monkey" that could run and fly, as well as grasp items. However, the researchers had to program the paths the flying monkey would take; in other words, it could not find safe routes by itself. Now, these scientists have developed flying cars that can both fly and drive drivers ed online through a simulated drivers ed online city-like setting that has parking spots, landing pads and no-fly zones. Moreover, these drones can move autonomously without colliding with each other, the drivers ed online researchers said. "Our vehicles can find their own safe paths," Araki drivers ed online told Live Science. The researchers took eight four-rotor "quadcopter" drones and put two small motors with wheels on the bottom of each drone, to make them capable drivers ed online of driving. In simulations, the robots could fly for about 295 feet (90 meters) or drive for 826 feet (252 meters) before their batteries ran out. The drivers ed online roboticists developed drivers ed online algorithms that ensured the robots did not collide with one another. In tests in a miniature town made using everyday materials such as pieces of fabric for roads and drivers ed online cardboard boxes for buildings, all drones successfully navigated from a starting point to an ending point on drivers ed online collision-free paths. Adding drivers ed online the driving apparatus to each drone added weight and so slightly reduced battery life, decreasing the maximum distances the drones could fly by about 14 percent, drivers ed online the researchers said. Still, the scientists drivers ed online noted that driving remained more drivers ed online efficient than flying, offsetting the relatively small loss in efficiency in flying due to the added weight. "The most important implication of our research is that vehicles that combine flying and driving have the drivers ed online potential to be drivers ed online both much more efficient and much more useful than vehicles that can only drive or only fly," Araki said. The scientists cautioned drivers ed online that fleets of automated flying taxis are likely not coming anytime soon. "Our current system of drones certainly isn't drivers ed online robust enough to actually carry people right now," Araki  drivers ed online said. Still, these experiments with drivers ed online quadcopters help explore "various ideas related to flying cars," he said. The scientists detailed their findings on June 1 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Singapore.