Yes, I know, seeing the advances in robotics and those humanoids now, I think more than one thought, what if a humanoid robot not only walked, but also launched a drone from its back capable of flying, driving and docking again as if it were part of the same body, that is already real and comes directly from the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, called the X1 system.

The project unites two machines, the Chinese Unitree G1 human modified to carry weight and move with stability and the M4 multimodal robot that can fly, roll on wheels and even land with precision. The result is a hybrid robotic system that combines all three forms of locomotion: walking, driving and flying into a single mechanical organism.

During the demonstration on the Pasadena campus, the humanoid walked to an open area and launched the M4 as if it were a backpack drone, the small robot flew over obstacles and transformed into a wheeled vehicle to continue the journey, and upon finding the campus lake, it simply flew again to cross the lake, an unprecedented exception of coordination and autonomy.

"The challenge is to get different robots to work together as if they were a single system, explained Morry Gharib, founding director of Cast. For his part, Aaron Ames, leader of CALTEC's locomotion laboratory, highlighted the importance of generating movements without depending on human data, something essential for robots that will operate in complex, unpredictable scenarios.

The m1 project is the result of a union of several laboratories, Ames Lab, responsible for locomotion control, the Gary Group, which designed the M4, TII, which was responsible for autonomy and integrated computing, and Northeastern University which worked on transformation mechanics.

For the future, the team seeks to improve the robustness and security of the system, making it reliable enough for critical missions. If the X1 is successful, it could inaugurate a new generation of hybrid robots, machines capable of combining the intelligence and strength of various mechanical forms in a single autonomous body.