Exploration
A lot of our robots are directed to help robots explore new areas. This helps remove humans from dangerous situations, and allows work to be performed in areas where humans cannot. The Whegs™ series robots are especially suited for locomotion over rough terrain with specific robots suited for urban search and rescue, surf zone exploration, and lunar regolith excavation. We also have developed planes used for aerial and terrestrial exploration in the MMALV series.
Whegs
![](https://engineering.case.edu/sites/default/files/styles/_none/public/whegsii7.jpeg?itok=MEpQF2YD)
The Whegs™ series robots utilize a method of locomotion that combines the advantages of wheels and legs (wheel-legs). Wheels are relatively simple, and allow a vehicle to to move over terrain quickly. Legs allow robots to climb obstacles that are higher than what a wheeled vehicle would be able to climb over.
Morphing Micro Air and Land Vehicles (MMALV)
![](https://engineering.case.edu/sites/default/files/styles/_none/public/malv6.jpeg?itok=C9-raiuZ)
The Morphing Micro Air and Land Vehicle (MMALV) is a hybrid air and land vehicle which can be used to serve as a remote sensor platform. The purpose of this vehicle is to serve as a device that can fly into hazardous/hostile environments, then land and walk around to explore, gather and relay intelligence so that decisions can be made about how to proceed in a dangerous situation without having to physically send people in to do the data collection. In this way, the risk to human lives can be minimized. Applications of the vehicle include intelligence operations, first responders who depend on difficult-to-obtain, real-time information to make decisions, and search & rescue operations.