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JUNE 2025 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 45 Specialized robots that can both fly and drive typi- cally touch down on land before attempting to trans- form and drive away. But when the landing terrain is rough, these robots sometimes get stuck and are un- able to continue operating. Now, a team of Caltech engineers has developed a real-life Transformer that has the "brains" to morph in midair, allowing the dro- nelike robot to smoothly roll away and begin its ground operations without pause. The new robot, dubbed ATMO (aerially transforming morpho- bot), uses four thrusters to fly, but the shrouds that protect them be- come the system's wheels in an alternative driving configuration. "We designed and built a new robotic system that is inspired by nature—by the way that animals can use their bodies in different ways to achieve different types of locomotion," says Ioannis Man- dralis (MS '22), a graduate stu- dent in aerospace at Caltech and lead author of the new paper. For Mid-air Transformation Helps Flying, Rolling Robot to Transition Smoothly example, he says, birds fly and then change their body morphology to slow themselves down and avoid obstacles. Complex aerodynamic forces come into play both because the robot is close to the ground and be- cause it is changing its shape as it morphs. To bet- ter understand them, the researchers ran tests in CAST's drone lab and fed those insights into the algorithm behind a new control system they created for ATMO. "The control algorithm is the biggest innovation in this paper," Mandralis says. "Quadro- tors use particular controllers be- cause of how their thrusters are placed and how they fly. Here we introduce a dynamic system that hasn't been studied before. As soon as the robot starts mor- phing, you get different dynamic couplings—different forces inter- acting with one another. And the control system has to be able to respond quickly to all of that." (Source: CalTech) sands of data scientists, but they will be reli- ant on you as the process/industry expert to tell them what to do with that all that data. In contrast, MKS' Atotech has known the industry for 50 years, and knows the indus- trial digital technologies around it. We can create better solutions faster for this market. Giovanni, what is a good ROI? A good ROI for these solutions is no lon- ger than two to three years. Of course, it can really change depending on whether you have low, medium, or high utilization. e total number of hours in production makes a difference in how quickly you realize your ROI. e ROI is far better in using an existing tool than if you tried to create a system your- self. at just makes no sense. Focusing on agnostic solutions is also an option, but the ROI will not be as good. Are there benefits for small and medium-sized PCB manufacturers in using this machine? Yes. Honestly, smaller manufacturers could get up to speed much faster than big corpora- tions because they might have a faster chain of command, more agile organizational pro- cedures, and higher flexibility. Giovanni, this has been really interesting. Thank you. ank you, Marcy, for your time. PCB007