LEONARDO – The Caltech Robot That Walks, Flies… and Rides a Skateboard!
Meet LEONARDO—short for “LEgs ONboARD drOne,” or LEO for short. Standing just 2.5 feet tall, this Caltech-built bipedal robot is part walking machine, part flying drone.
LEO isn’t just good at putting one foot in front of the other. Thanks to four angled propellers on its shoulders and multi-joint legs, it can walk a slackline, hop, and even ride a skateboard. Yes—an actual skateboard.
The inspiration came from birds. Think about how they hop and flap to balance on telephone wires. LEO uses the same principle, blending walking and flying into one smooth act.
Why is this important? Walking robots can stumble on rough terrain, while flying robots use lots of energy and can’t carry much. LEO combines both worlds—its legs carry most of the weight while the thrusters keep it balanced, letting it move through tricky environments with agility.
Beyond the fun tricks, this has real potential. Future versions could help aerial robots land safely on uneven ground, or even assist Mars missions with legged landing gear.
The project started in 2019 at Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies, and researchers are already working on sturdier legs, stronger thrusters, and smarter algorithms to make LEO more autonomous.
So today it’s walking wires and skateboarding—but tomorrow, it could be redefining how robots move through our world, and maybe even beyond it.
And that’s your robot news update for today!
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