Transformables: Check Out the Pegasus Mini, a Football-Sized Drone that Flies or Drives

Reminiscent of Hasbro’s Transformer™ toys – little robots that transform from superhero to supervehicle and back – the Pegasus™ and Pegasus Mini™ drones transform from an unmanned aerial vehicle to an unmanned ground vehicle to expand use cases dramatically.  They’re a new class of hybrid drones that the makers, US-based Robotic Research, call “transformables” – and they add a whole new level of functionality for customers.

The Pegasus Mini was announced last week at CES.  This next generation of the Pegasus drone is football-sized, allowing a range of industries including public services, military and enterprise to bring camera equipment or rescue supplies into a wide variety of environments.  It’s flexible, easy to deploy, and carries unique sensors.  Also at CES, Velodyne Lidar introduced their smallest sensor, the Velabit™ – perfect for use with the small form-factor Pegasus Mini.

Robotic Research’s president Alberto Lacaze said this about the Velabit:

“Before the Velabit there was no suitable small and lightweight lidar for small unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles performing obstacle avoidance or mapping,” said Alberto Lacaze, president, Robotic Research. “Since Robotic Research’s Pegasus MiniTM is a fully autonomous ground and air vehicle, it requires the Velabit’s size and versatility. In addition, the Velabit enables the most advanced GPS-denied HD mapping in the industry.  The Velabit fills a much-needed space in the market and is currently in a class of its own.”

The following is a Robotic Research LLC press release.

CLARKSBURG, Md., Jan. 3, 2020 — Robotic Research LLC, a leading provider of autonomy and robotic technologies to commercial and federal customers, will be debuting a new football-size transformable drone, the Pegasus Mini™, at CES 2020 in the company’s Booth #25664 in LVCC South Hall 2. The Mini is a smaller version of the original PegasusTM, introduced in August, which established a new category of transformable unmanned autonomous vehicles (hybrid unmanned aircraft system/unmanned ground vehicle) that both drive on land and fly. This patented combination of features provides a new range of capabilities to support commercial industry, first responders, law enforcement and military customers that previously had not been possible with autonomous drones or land vehicles.

“We are excited to be at CES to showcase Pegasus as a new line of transformable robots and debut the Pegasus Mini, which offers a super-compact yet powerful drone and land vehicle combination capable of bringing remote cameras and sensors into previously unreachable locations,” said Alberto Lacaze, president of Robotic Research. “This small but mighty system has immense versatility and reach like no other robotic vehicle, flying at very high speeds with a payload capacity that can carry important tools to reach critical locations in unpredictable environments. We look forward to leveraging these unique features of the Pegasus Mini to provide more flexible, easily deployable, autonomous systems for customers in both the commercial and federal markets.”

The Pegasus hybrid UAS/UGV configuration delivers advanced GPS-denied mapping with fully autonomous high-speed flying and driving capabilities. Pegasus Mini is designed to provide the extra reach that a UAV or UGV alone cannot provide. Uses include inspection, rescue, rapid response, and applications that strongly benefit organizations in oil and gas, public transportation, law enforcement, public safety, and more.

The features of the Pegasus Mini include:

• Capability of autonomous operations in the air and on the ground.
• Compact and similar in size to a football — approximately 16 inches by 8 inches.
• Weight of 4.2 pounds.
• Payload of up to 2 pounds.
• Up to 30 minutes of operation in flight mode.
• Up to two hours of operation in drive mode.

Learn more about Robotic Research by visiting hdps://www.roboticresearch.com/.

About Robotic Research

Robotic Research, LLC, is a leading provider of autonomy and robotic technology driving the transformation of commercial and government autonomous opera’ons through innova’ve and intelligent systems. Whether providing autonomous vehicles to the military to keep the warfighter safe; delivering unmanned, transformable robots to extend the reach of Special Forces units; or making commercial transportation safer and more efficient, Robotic Research is leading this dynamic revolution in technology. To learn more about Robotic Research, visit www.roboticresearch.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.