Straight from Italy, a new kind of flying robot is causing a stir. Equipped with an ingenious propulsion system, it is the world's first a jet-powered humanoid robot. Technically, the biggest challenge is to make it stable in the air, but also resistant to heat.
A research unit at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) has been working for several years on prototypes of flying humanoid robots. The latest, named iRonCub3, can soar through the air just like Iron Man or Astro Boy. Unlike these two fictional characters, this real-life robot has a propulsion system consisting of four jet engines – two in a jetpack on the robot's back and two on the arms – giving it the ability to fly.
The engines can deliver a maximum thrust of over 1,000 newtons and the exhaust temperature exceeds 600 degrees. This poses two obvious problems: how to remain stable once airborne, and how to withstand such heat?
To stay on course, the robot is regularly fed with control algorithms, which regulate its position and altitude in real time throughout the flight. To withstand the heat, many components have been changed compared to previous prototypes.
In particular, the latest version features a new titanium spine and various protections against high temperatures. All in all, it weighs around 70 kg.
This new robot already appears to be particularly effective at hovering flight, even if there is still work to be done to make it perfectly stable and reliable in all circumstances.
In the long term, this kind of robot could fulfil public utility missions, such as assisting rescue services in the event of natural disasters, or travelling to places temporarily inaccessible to humans. – AFP Relaxnews
