In China, a prototype of a two-legged robot Jet-HR2 was created, which was taught to fly with the help of fans. Details about the development of the engineers of the Guangdong Institute of Technology are set out in the preprint of the report, available at arXiv.org.
Walking robots are a promising direction because of their patency in difficult conditions. Such structures are better adapted to obstacles of different heights and depths. But in some cases, obstacles can be insurmountable for walking robots due to incompatible dimensions. The Chinese robot will be able to fly over such obstacles.
The "flying" Jet-HR2 was a development of the Jet-HR1 model, introduced in 2018. The robot, created under the leadership of Zhifeng Huang, could step over obstacles thanks to an unusual design. In the legs of the robot there are fans that hold the machine at the moment when the Jet-HR1 leg is stretched forward.
In the updated design, the number of fans has been increased to four, so that the robot can break away from the surface. Two fans are located in the middle part of the feet, which allows the thrust vector to pass along the legs, providing a stable takeoff. Jet-HR2 was additionally equipped with a pair of fans located in the upper part of the robot.
Two controllers are responsible for the stability of the flight, compensating for pitch and yaw. The demonstration videos show the robot flying with and without controllers, demonstrating a stable flight. During the demonstration, the developers tested the Jet-HR2 in short-term flights during which the robot was held by safety guides.
The creators of Jet-HR2 will reveal details about their development at the ICRA conference in 2022.
Earlier, a [...] robot for fighting snipers was presented at the Army-2021 forum. The Sosna-N detection complex, developed by specialists of the M. F. Stelmakh Polyus Research Institute (part of the Shvabe holding of the Rostec State Corporation), can automatically track optical devices that monitor the protected sector.
Daniil Irinin