A Robot with a Jetpack
The Italians have shown the first ever flying humanoid robot. It's a 70-kilogram machine with a creepy face and a jetpack.
Bulging eyes, frozen grimace... The robot looks like it just saw an electricity bill after mining cryptocurrency. At least in dark basements and disaster zones, beauty is not the main thing.
Two turbines on the arms, two on the back - and the robot hovers 50 centimeters from the ground. The exhaust gases are heated to 800 degrees Celsius - they had to make the spine out of titanium! The total thrust exceeds 1000 Newtons.
Researchers have overcome the biggest problem - balance! Drones have it simple - they are symmetrical. But here the arms and legs dangle, the center of gravity is constantly shifting. The solution was found in artificial intelligence. Neural networks were trained on a bunch of data from the wind tunnel of the Milan Polytechnic. Now the robot compensates for turbulence and limb movements during flight!
The system is so smart that it can even handle sequential engine startup. The next stop is Genoa Airport, where a special flight zone has been prepared for the iRonCub3. In the future, such robots will fly to rescue people from rubble or explore radioactive zones.
