Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob), Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

EPFL researchers at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems have created a bio-inspired flying robot that can withstand collisions with obstacles in its environment. A unique Active Recovery System allows the robot to pick itself back up after a collision and launch itself back into the air. Such a design could prove useful in exploring hard to reach areas, such as caves or irradiated nuclear power plants.

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Thanks to the design of its legs, which faithfully mimic feline morphology, EPFL's four-legged "cheetah-cub robot" shares the advantages of its biological model: it is small, light and runs very fast. In the long term, this type of machine, which is still in an experimental stage, could be used in search and rescue missions or for exploration.

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Jose del R. Millan, Defitech Chair for non-invasive brain machine interfaces at EPFL, and Robert Leeb, from EPFL's Center for Neuroprosthetics, explain how people with disabilities can control telepresence robots or a wheelchair using only mental commands.

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Roboticists from Switzerland's EPFL institute bring us four awesome robots that are designed to mimic the movements and gait of animals. We chat with these biorobotics researchers about the lessons learned from studying snakes and quadrupeds, and how their robots can be used in practical situations. Plus, these robots are actually pretty cute, and their lifelike movements make great animated GIFs!

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BIORob, EPFL specialise in bioinspired robots. Meet Professor Auke Ijspeert and his NCCR Robotics members, Kamilo Melo and Tomislav Horvat.

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