Hey! Your Hexapod Is In My Hexcopter!

When we look back on the events that led up to the rise of our Robotic Overlords, I think this will be a day that will live in infamy. Some foolish mortals at Mad Lab Industries have, for their own twisted reasons, connected a Phantom AX Hexapod robot to a six-rotor helicopter kit, thereby creating a flying/crawling insect hybrid that can walk through tight spaces and then take off.

The team began by trying to try things the natural way:

Our first attempt at getting a Quadcopter that could walk involved locking the two machines in a closet for a few days in hopes nature would take its course. When it became apparent this approach wasn’t going to work we knew we had to intervene.

The team then began building a model made of light plastic and finally a version made of carbon fiber. This allowed the project to be light enough to fly yet sturdy enough to walk around. All told, it took them 16 hours to build one of the craziest hybrids I’ve seen in a while. Although it requires two people to operate the dual features, expect that soon these things will be sentient.

via Make