When crawling robots and flying drones team up, there is no escape

You're probably already familiar with footage of creepy, six and four-legged insectoid robots crawling over terrain with the assistance of a human operator. And most of us in large cities have seen those tiny flying drones by now

But a new experiment pairs the efforts of the two in a way that gives the crawling robot brand new powers: the ability to travel unfamiliar territory with the help of its eye in the sky partner

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Created by a research team at ETH Zurich, the system works by first allowing the flying hexacopter drone to fly ahead and map the area, creating a high-resolution elevation map of the environment. After the travel path is mapped by the flying drone, that data is transmitted to the walking robot, allowing it to easily navigate unexpected obstacles, rough surfaces and steep slopes Read more...

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source: Mashable http://ift.tt/1L43iaC