Just a Four-Legged Robot Pulling a Three-Ton Airplane

Watching a four-legged robot walk on its own is pretty cool. But you know what’s cooler? Watching a four-legged robot walk on its own while pulling a passenger plane.

The Dynamic Systems Lab (DSL) at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) has been developing hydraulically powered quadruped robots for more than a decade, all designed to help humans in disaster response, agrWatching a four-legged robot walk on its own is pretty cool. But you know what’s cooler? Watching a four-legged robot walk on its own while pulling a passenger plane.

The Dynamic Systems Lab (DSL) at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) has been developing hydraulically powered quadruped robots for more than a decade, all designed to help humans in disaster response, agriculture, decommissioning, and inspection efforts. Now the team has unveiled the HyQReal—its most rugged, reliable, and energy-efficient bot yet.

Last week, the IIT researchers debuted the HyQReal at Montreal’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation by showing a video of the bot lugging along a Piaggio P180 Avanti aircraft for more than 30 feet. Here’s the legitimately gripping clip of the HyQReal in action, complete with dramatic entrance music worthy of WrestleMania:

Yep, that’s about a 4-foot-long, 3-foot-tall, 286-pound robot towing the 3.3-ton Avanti—a nine-passenger Italian executive transport with a 46-foot wingspan. Credit the four hydraulic pumps that power the bot’s front and hind legs, which DSL developed with Moog Inc.; its custom-made, special-rubber feet designed to handle high traction; and especially the maximum joint torque (a peak of 225 Nm) needed to—once again—pull a friggin’ plane.

The HyQReal may not be hauling a heavy-duty plane every time out, but the fact that it can—at least for a few minutes, if not longer, thanks to the bot’s 2-hour battery life—only means big things for the future of employing robots in emergency situations.