Moonshot

Last year, Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST)—an interdisciplinary research center that is developing the next generation of autonomous robots—announced five ambitious goals to guide its work. One of these “moonshot” challenges has already taken wing: a robotic flying ambulance that could act as a rescue pod, safely carrying an individual out of a disaster area to the nearest hospital. A scale model of the ambulance can already fly autonomously, and engineers are training it to fly safely through high winds and navigate its surroundings without human intervention. “The moonshots are really a teaser to inspire and excite the scientists and students,” says Morteza Gharib (PhD ’83), Caltech’s Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering; Booth-Kresa Leadership Chair and director of CAST; and director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories. “But the best fruit will be the technologies we develop along the way.”