Flying robot becomes a reality as first humanoid lifts off in Italy. Watch

The world’s first jet-powered flying humanoid robot has successfully taken its first flight. This was made possible by researchers in Italy who published their observations and achievements in Nature Communications Engineering. The robot, iRonCub3, lifted off the ground by about 50 cm and remained stable for the entire duration. The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) achieved a major breakthrough in humanoid robotics. iRonCub3 has been built for real-world environments. The entire project took the scientists two years, including the latest testing.

The Italian scientists noted that in the latest experiments, the robot lifted approximately 50 cm off the ground while maintaining stability. This paves the way for the future development of flying robots that can work like humans but take flight for various tasks. The team analysed the robot’s complex aerodynamics and created an advanced control system for managing its interconnected parts.

To create the flying humanoid robots, IIT roboticists in Genoa, Italy, collaborated with Alex Zanotti’s team at the DAER Aerodynamics Laboratory at the Polytechnic of Milan, where they carried out extensive wind tunnel tests. They also got together with Gianluca Iaccarino’s group at Stanford University, where "deep learning algorithms were developed to model aerodynamics," SciTech Daily reported.

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The goal of the project, led by the Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence (AMI) Lab at IIT under Daniele Pucci, is to integrate walking and flying functions into humanoid robots to enable them to navigate unstructured and extreme environments. iRonCub3 was built on the latest version of the iCub humanoid robot, known as iCub3.

“This research is radically different from traditional humanoid robotics and forced us to make a substantial leap forward with respect to the state of the art,” Daniele Pucci said. "Here, thermodynamics plays a pivotal role — the emission gases from the turbines reach 700°C and flow at nearly the speed of sound. Aerodynamics must be evaluated in real-time, while control systems must handle both slow joint actuators and fast jet turbines. Testing these robots is as fascinating as it is dangerous, and there is no room for improvisation."

The humanoid robot uses four jet engines to fly. Two of them are mounted on its arms, and two on a jetpack attached to its back. In the earlier version, the iCub robot's hardware was modified with a new titanium spine and protective heat-resistant covers to make this possible. The entire robot weighs around 70 kilograms, and it can hover and carry out controlled flight manoeuvres even in unsuitable conditions, such as during wind disturbances.