For the last few years, Italian engineers have been working on a humanoid robot for emergency response applications. The iRonCub3 has jets on its back and fire-breathers on its arms, and has now achieved stable take-off and hover for the first time.
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As well as strapping a twin-jet pack to its back, the team also sacrificed the original robot’s flexible human-like hands in favor of more fire-breathing JetCats. Thrust is said to max out at 1,000 N (around 225 lbf) and exhaust temperatures can get as high as 800 °C (1,472 °F).
Crikey.
A rescue Waymo? What could go wrong?
Astroboy!