Identifying a market for a transformable air-ground robot

Robotic Research’s Pegasus may be fielded to select US Special Forces, but the company is facing challenges breaking into a US military market that can’t quite figure out how to classify a drone that can both fly and navigate on land.

On 19 November, the company held a media day in Clarksburg, Maryland, to show off its newest projects. Included in the mix was a ‘transformable’ vehicle dubbed Pegasus – part unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and part unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

“You can fly to a location and once you land in that building, for example ... you can drive to a location that you’re interested in and then recovery is easy because you can fly away, as well. This sequential use of fly-drive-fly gets you to places that no other robot can take you,” president and co-founder Alberto Lacaze explained.

While the platform was developed for the special forces, it is not yet a US military programme of record, and Lacaze said the company is having some challenges finding a home for this new robot class.

“It doesn’t fit anyone’s swim lane right now,” he added. “We go to the air force and it’s like ‘The thing drives, it’s not quite a UAV’. And we go to the army and it says, ‘Hey, it flies, it’s not quite a UGV.’ So, we’re having a little bit of an issue.”