In the Future UAVs Will Walk

A new UAV prototype has been developed that transforms its static wings into movable legs. Called the Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot, or DALER, the project is the brainchild of Ludovic Daler, a mechanical engineer at Switzerland’s EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne) and deviser of extremely convenient acronyms.

All in all, the DALER is actually a pretty simple device. To set the drone in motion, you simply throw it. Once in flight, the UAV can will travel wherever it needs to go. However, after it lands, the DALER can morph into a small walker by unlocking the outer section of its wings.

According to Daler – the engineer, not the robot – “The morphology of the robot is optimized for ground speed. It can move forward at .2 meters per second, and can rotate on spot at 25 degrees per second.” In addition the robot can walk using a number of different gaits, and can overcome nearly any obstacle or terrain it comes across.

Writhing across the ground, the DALER reminds me of an injured terminator, looking to complete its mission of total annihilation regardless of injury. Although this UAV is still in the “cute and cuddly prototype” phase, it might not be too long before something akin to the DALER gets militarized.  Once that happens, there will likely be nowhere to hide come the robot apocalypse.

Watch A Video Describing DALER: