The scientists have developed a new robot that can tremendously contribute in offering a helping hand in dangerous rescue efforts at the places badly hit by natural disasters.
According to the developers, the robot can fly into the danger zone using their wings. Moreover, the robots are so advanced that they can even walk all over the dangerous area in order to spot any living thing and rescue them.
The robot, dubbed Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot (DALER), is developed by the scientists at the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics division in Switzerland. The developers have said DALER would be deployed to assist the rescue teams in saving the strangled people.
“The robot’s design is inspired by the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus, which can perform aerial and terrestrial locomotion with limited trade-offs. Wings’ adaptive morphology allows the robot to modify the shape of its body in order to increase its efficiency during terrestrial locomotion,” said Ludovic Daler, vampire bat robot project leader from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
According to the developers, the robots are inspired from the vampire bats. DALER is a very advanced robot as it can transform itself from a flying vampire to a crawling creature in a matter of time while acting in accordance with the situation.
The robot can walk on its wings which can get partially fold, contract and expand as per the situation. It is also capable of conducting air surveys during the rescue efforts. It has a flexible skin and a simple motor.
While in the air, DALER can fly at the speed of 20 m/s and can reach speeds of 6 cm/s when on the ground.
This is not for the first occasion when scientists have developed any robot inspired by animals. In the past, the engineers have created robots replicating snakes and cheetah.