November 18 – Live Science showcased something that just a few years ago would have looked like a scene straight out of Transformers: the humanoid robot X1, developed by engineers at Caltech in collaboration with the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi, walking across campus, leaning forward — and from its back launches the M4 drone, which takes off into the air as a flying platform and then… transforms into a ground-based wheeled robot. Live Science
The X1 system is essentially a modified Unitree G1 humanoid, carrying on its back a multi-mode robot, the M4. The drone takes off using its rotor blades, then upon landing, rotates its protective rotor rings into wheel mode and continues the mission as a ground platform — navigating obstacles, climbing slopes, and using its rotors’ thrust to traverse difficult terrain. The humanoid, while not the smoothest “walker” on the market, is capable of independently climbing stairs and reaching the point where the M4 has completed its task. New Atlas
In essence, Caltech and TII are demonstrating the first functional prototype of a hybrid system — a humanoid carrier paired with a transforming drone — designed not as a showcase, but for real-world use cases: search-and-rescue missions, infrastructure inspection, and emergency response operations that require a combination of walking, flight, and ground mobility. The X1 Project is the result of a three-year collaboration between Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) and TII, serving as a testbed for a broader research goal: how to safely and predictably integrate multiple types of mobility and autonomy into a single system. California Institute of Technology
More about the X1 Project on the Caltech website: www.caltech.edu
