LEONARDO - a bipedal walking robot that can fly

Caltech researchers developed a bipedal walking robot that can fly, slackline, and skateboard: LEONARDO (LEgs ONboARD drOne, or LEO for short). According to the researchers, “by combining two distinct locomotion mechanisms, LEONARDO achieves complex maneuvers that require delicate balancing, such as walking on a slackline and skateboarding, which are challenging for existing bipedal robots. LEONARDO also demonstrates agile walking motions, interlaced with flying maneuvers to overcome obstacles using synchronized control of propellers and leg joints. The mechanical design and synchronized control strategy achieve a unique multimodal locomotion capability that could potentially enable robotic missions and operations that would be difficult for single-modal locomotion robots.” Credit: Caltech A bipedal walking robot that can fly, slackline, and skateboard Kyunam Kim, Patrick Spieler, Elena-Sorina Lupu, Alireza Ramezani, Soon-Jo Chung Science Robotics, DOI: