Engineers from Caltech‘s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, have put together a team of machines, called X1, that can work together in a crisis. The pace is set by a strolling robot, followed by a rolling scout and a soaring observer. The G1 from Unitree, the M4 drone and a wheeled rover all got put through their paces on campus this week.
The G1 is a pretty big deal, standing about 5 feet tall and weighing in at 70 pounds. It’s because of its flexible legs that can bend and adjust in real time. Perched on its back is the M4, a drone that can flip between wheels and propellers whenever it needs to. On the ground, it rolls quietly to conserve battery life; in the air, the propellers kick in for a wider view. The test – and it was a pretty neat one – demonstrated its dual-role function – surveying roofs for structural flaws one minute, then landing to deliver a sample the next. And the best bit? The whole system is controlled from one single dashboard. Software connects both perspectives together, so when the drone’s camera feeds come through, they’re fed straight into the humanoid’s pathfinding. Tell the rover to go fetch a tool, and the G1 will just hang back without going into panic mode.
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It’s something they’ve been planning for a few years now. Caltech teamed up with the Technology Innovation Institute over in Abu Dhabi to bring together gear from different manufacturers and get them all working together as one team. The G1’s body is based on Unitree’s homebrew design, while the M4 was built from scratch using bespoke prototypes. This is all part of a response unit for things like wildfires, floods, and urban collapses.
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