This Birdlike Robot Uses Thrusters to Float on Two Legs

We humans envy birds for their seemingly effortless ability to fly, and for their ability to extract endless amounts of bread from old people in parks. But there's a middle ground between those two states--soaring and ambling around on two feet in pursuit of crumbs--that we tend to overlook: Birds are a kind of hybrid. To walk over difficult terrain, they can flap to stabilize, while we humans trip over ourselves. When roboticists look to nature for inspiration, they overlook this middle-ground state, developing robots that either walk or fly--but not both. "Everyone is working on drones or bipedal locomotion," says Caltech roboticist Soon-Jo Chung. "We want to lay the groundwork for combining these two different types."