IRonCub: A Humanoid Robot Designed to Fly Like Iron Man

Summary

One of the robotics projects that I’ve been most excited about for years now is iRonCub, from Daniele Pucci’s Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence Lab at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, Italy. Since 2017, Pucci has been developing a jet-propulsion system that will enable an iCub robot (originally designed in 2004 to be the approximate shape and size of a 5-year-old child) to fly like Iron Man.Over the summer, after nearly 10 years of development, iRonCub3 achieved lift-off and stable flight for the first time, with its four jet engines lifting it 50 centimeters off the ground for several seconds. The long-term vision is for iRonCub (or a robot like it) to operate as a disaster response platform, Pucci tells us. In an emergency situation like a flood or a fire, iRonCub could quickly get to a location without worrying about obstacles, and then on landing, start walking for energy efficiency while using its hands and arms to move debris and open doors. “We believe in contributing to something unique in the future,” says Pucci. “We have to explore new things, and this is wild territory at the scientific level.”Obviously, this concept for iRonCub and the practical experimentation attached to it is really cool. But coolness in and of itself is usually not enough of a reason to build a robot, especially a robot that’s a (presumably rather expensive) multi-year project involving a bunch of robotics students, so let’s get into a little more detail about why a flying robot baby is actually something that the world needs. In an emergency situation like a flood or a fire, iRonCub could quickly get to a location without worrying about obstacles, and then on landing, start walking for energy efficiency while using its hands and arms to move debris and open doors. IIT Getting a humanoid robot to do this sort of thing is quite a challenge. Together, the jet turbines mounted to iRonCub’s back and arms can generate over 1000 N of thrust, but because it takes tim...