The first real Transformer

From air to ground and vice versa.

And if a robot could change shape while still flying, transforming from a drone into a ground vehicle in mid-air, without needing to land, stop or restart anything, exactly that is the new reality brought to us by Caltech engineers who developed a real-life transformer.

Its name is ATMO and it is about to revolutionize the way we conceive robotic mobility. This robot was designed to fly and move on the ground with a single central motor. That's right, a single motor controls the entire articulation system that changes the positioning of the thrusters, raising them for flight or lowering them to move with a land vehicle.

The idea behind ATMO was inspired by nature especially the way animals use their bodies in different ways to face different challenges, this type of multi-form adaptation is what gives robots their main advantage, real versatility in complex environments.

Its great capacity

ATMO's great achievement is in its ability to transform while still moving in the air, something unprecedented for aerial robots until today, unlike traditional drones that need to land to change modes, ATMO performs this metamorphosis with precision and stability even facing the turbulent ground effect that challenges helicopters so much.

To achieve this, the engineers developed an intelligent control algorithm based on movement prediction, which is capable of anticipating how the air flow will behave during the transformation and adjusting the robot's movements in real time, to avoid loss of stability, all this while maintaining the fluidity of locomotion whether in mid-flight or sliding on the ground.

The secret is precisely in the dynamic control, unlike conventional quadcopters that have fixed propellers and use static algorithms, ATMO needs to deal with multiple forces in continuous interaction during the transition, this requires an advanced control AI capable of making decisions in milliseconds and maintaining balance even in the most unpredictable conditions, it is a true dance between aerodynamics and artificial intelligence, where the robot learns to behave like an instinctive, fast and precise animal.

With all this adaptability ATMO is already seen as a key piece for critical missions and according to those involved in the project this theft has potential even for planetary exploration facing extreme environments on Mars for example, where the ability to adapt can be the determining factor between the success and failure of the mission.