α-WaLTR Turns It Wheels Into Triple-Bladed “Legs” to Navigate Uneven Terrain — and Even Stairs

Built as part of a military program but with wide-ranging use-cases, α-WaLTR goes where other wheeled robots fear to roll.

Researchers at Texas A&M have designed a compact four-wheeled robot for whom stairs and other uneven terrain pose no problems — thanks to wheels which can transform themselves into “legs” on demand.

Dubbed α-WaLTR, for the Adaptable Wheel-and-Leg Transformable Robot, the robot has been built as part of DARPA’s Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) programme under the leadership of grant awardee Associate Professor Kiju Lee. “Through this new project,” Lee explains, “I will develop unmanned ground vehicles with agile and versatile locomotive capabilities for urban military operations.

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