The robot that always lands on its feet

While it's exploring confined, dangerous or cluttered zones, the flying robot "Airburr" isn't fazed by crashes or falls. Built using a design approach that's diametrically opposite to that of similar robots, it actively seeks out, and can move about without fear of accidents. Contrary to other flying robots, which try at all costs to avoid obstacles, AirBurr has been designed to withstand the shock of a collision. Its navigational algorithms, developed in EPFL's Intelligent Systems Laboratory (LIS), allow it to exploit these in order to move about. "Four years ago we developed a flying robot that could duck around obstacles," explains project leader Adam Klaptocz, "but in a chaotic environment it wasn't reliable, and it always ended up running into something and crashing and then it couldn't get back up again." He decided to change their approach. The scientist designed a robust, autonomous helicopter that could remain airborne after a collision and get itself back up after a fall. The LIS team has just published the results of the project in the journal IEEE Transactions in Robotics.