Caltech’s bio-inspired Morphobot M4 (Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot) is a real-life Transformers robot that can not only crawl and roll, but also fly. It comes equipped with four wheels roll on four wheels that can transform into rotors to fly, shift to two wheel mode for standing, and walk by using them as feet. Its two rotors can help the robot roll up steep inclines on two wheels and more.
Thanks to integrated joints on the wheel assemblies, Morphobot can perform a walking motion. Future M4 generations could have the ability to effectively walk across rugged terrain that a wheeled robot would have troubles with. The robot also has autonomous capabilities and can make decisions on how to best navigate through a complex environment without human input.
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Our aim was to push the boundaries of robot locomotion by designing a system that showcases extraordinary mobility capabilities with a wide range of distinct locomotion modes. The M4 project successfully achieved these objectives. When encountering unknown environments, only robots that have the ability to repurpose their multi-modal components aided by artificial intelligence can succeed,” says Gharib, Co-Author of Study on Nature Communications.
