iRonCub: A Humanoid Robot Designed to Fly Like Iron Man

Ironcub is one of the robotic projects that have fascinated me the most for years is Ironcub, from the Daniele Pucci’s artificial and mechanical intelligence laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, Italy. Since 2017, Pucci has been developing a reaction propulsion system that will allow an ICUB robot (originally designed in 2004 as the approximate shape and size of a 5 -year -old child) to steal like Iron Man.

During the summer, after almost 10 years of development, Ironcub3 obtained takeoff and stable flight for the first time, its four jet engines lifting it 50 centimeters from the ground for several seconds. The long-term vision is that Ironcub (or a robot like this) works like a platform for response to disasters, Pucci tells us. In an emergency situation such as a flood or a fire, Ironcub could quickly go to a place without worrying about obstacles, then on landing, start walking for energy efficiency while using your hands and arms to move the debris and open doors. “We believe in contribution to something unique in the future,” explains Pucci. “We have to explore new things, and it is a wilderness at the scientific level.”

Obviously, this concept for Ironcub and the practical experiment attached to it is really cool. But the freshness in itself is generally not enough for a reason to build a robot, in particular a robot which is a multi -year project (probably quite expensive) involving a bunch of robotics students, so let’s go a little more detail on the reasons why a flying baby is actually something that the world needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1bnhot4D5Q In an emergency situation such as a flood or a fire, Ironcub could quickly go to a place without worrying about obstacles, then on landing, start walking for energy efficiency while using your hands and arms to move the debris and open doors. Iit

Having a humanoid robot to do this kind of thing is a challenge. Together, the jet turbines mounted on the back and the arms of Ironcub can generate more than 1000 n of push, but because it takes time for the motors to fly or lower, the control must come from the robot itself while it moves its arms to maintain stability.

“What is not visible to the video,” said Pucci, “is that the exhaust gas of turbines is 800 ° C and an almost supersonic speed. We must understand how to generate trajectories to avoid the fact that the cones of the emission gases have an impact on the robot.”

Even if the exhaust does not end up melting the robot, there are still aerodynamic forces involved which have to this point that this point was really not a consideration for humanoid robots – in June, the Pucci group published an article in Nature Engineering CommunicationsOffering a “complete approach to the model and control of aerodynamic forces [for humanoid robots] Use classic and learning techniques. »»

“The exhaust gas of turbines is 800 ° C and an almost supersonic speed.” —Daniele Pucci, iit

Whether or not you are aboard the future vision of Pucci for Ironcub as a catastrophic response platform, derivatives of current research can be immediately applied beyond flying humanoid robots. The thrust estimation algorithms can be used with other flight platforms based on the directed thrust, such as Evtol aircraft. Aerodynamic compensation is relevant to humanoid robots even if they are not in the air, if we expect them to work when it is windy outside.

More surprisingly, Pucci describes a recent collaboration with an industrial company developing a new pneumatic pliers. “At a certain point, we had to make an estimate of the force to control the pliers, and we realized that the dynamics really looked like that of reaction turbines, and we were therefore able to use the same tools for controlling the pliers.

What is the next step for Ironcub: attract talents and future improvements

There is a bigger reason to do it, he says: “It’s really cool.” In practice, a really cool flagship project like Ironcub attracts not only talents in the Pucci laboratory, but also maintains passionate and committed students and researchers. I saw it first -hand when I visited the Iit last year, where I had a similar atmosphere to watch the Darpa Robotics Challenge and Darpa Subt – When people know they work on something Really coolThere is this tangible, omnipresent and immersive that is passed. These are projects like Ironcub that can lead students to love robotics.

In the near future, a new jetpack with an additional degree of freedom will facilitate control of the Ironcub lace, and Pucci would also like to add wings for a more efficient long distance flight. But the logistics of the robot tests becomes more complicated – it is only so far that the team can go with its current test stand (which is on the roof of its building), and future progress will probably require coordination with Genoa airport.

It will not be easy, but as Pucci clearly shows: “It is not a joke. This is something in which we believe. And this feeling of doing something exceptional, or perhaps historical, something we will remember – is something that motivated us. And we start to start. “