"... a future application of the DALER might be to find victims in dangerous areas after a natural disaster."
And then feast on their blood.
Coat: I had to get that in - I'm going
Swiss researchers, who developed a robot that can walk on its wings across tricky terrain, have flaunted their latest prototype which they hope could one day be used in search and rescue operations. Or something. Youtube Video The latest model from EPFL builds on the previous design of the drone, dubbed DALER (Deployable Air- …
Wow! Much cooler than the bat but
it looks as though flying is a real battery drainer so it is better on the ground. A shame the guy is having problems with his manufacturer, the 'B' car looks well engineered and useful.
The Vampire bat may have an edge in terms of battery duration and mobility in a rubble filled building, kinda creepy looking but again nice out of the box engineering.
Vampire bats can get airborne from the ground I think.
"While other bats have almost lost the ability to maneuver on land, vampire bats can also run by using a unique, bounding gait, in which the forelimbs instead of the hindlimbs are recruited for force production, as the wings are much more powerful than the legs. This ability to run seems to have evolved independently within the bat lineage"
"Once the common vampire bat locates a host, such as a sleeping mammal, it lands and approaches it on the ground"
"To take off from the ground, the bat generates extra lift by crouching and flinging itself into the air."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_bat
No doubt they will add that feature next.
The feeding fangs and laser will be added last, when Skynet is operational.
search and rescue robots that look like:
roaches, spiders, snakes, rats, and now vampire bats.
I get the distinct feeling that whoever's designing these is simply intending to provide disaster victims with the incentive to rescue themselves and get the Hell outta there before the search and rescue robots show up.
I was thinking more along the lines of military applications. Mimicking nature would help blend in more than something that looks obviously man made. I think it is cool to take a natural form as inspiration, but the solution that DropBear linked to would seem to be more practical if the goal was simply to go from land to air.
Before the break in security cameras picked up nothing unusual, the odd owl and one bat that must have passed close to the camera as it seemed oversize. Somehow the intruders had full 3D maps of the inner courtyard and it is believed may have gained some level of initial access via a ventilation grill on the maintenance area (a night shift engineer was later found to have succumbed to a poison dart).
Once inside they did not trigger the heat based motion detection nor break beams that cover down to six inches. Later an unidentified device was found sitting on an inductive charging loop used by the robot vacuum cleaners, it is believed this may also be the root of the fire that destroyed the building and any evidence.
Yeah, that was my first thought on seeing it walk. Land it on rough or soft ground and the nose would just dig in.
Also I don't see what advantage you get from landing anyway. If you need to give the victim a payload (torch, location finder, first aid kit) then you could do that by 'bombing' them from something better able to fly.
A drone with a 3 foot wingspan designed for endurance and with an infra red camera looks a much better bet. If big enough it could even drop a robot capable of landing and then walking to the victim.