![The future of mass transit may be a whole lot cooler than you think.
Japanese researchers rolled into the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai with a scale model of a robotic plane-train that levitates on a cushion of air. It’s essentially a plane — complete with stubby wings, a handful of propellers and a tail — that flies perilously close to the ground.
The plane-train rides within a concrete channel. And because it has to deal with pitch, roll and yaw as well as the throttle, the research team, led by Tohoku University assistant professor Yusuke Sugahara, built a prototype that autonomously stabilizes its three axes.
So far, the team has a scale model that wobbles down a runway. Once the researchers perfect the idea, they plan to build a larger, manned prototype and a concrete channel to see how it does at 200 km/h [124 mph].
(via Levitating Plane-Train Gives Mass Transit a Lift | Autopia | Wired.com)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll5x3agcOC1qz4w5do1_500.jpg)
The future of mass transit may be a whole lot cooler than you think.
Japanese researchers rolled into the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai with a scale model of a robotic plane-train that levitates on a cushion of air. It’s essentially a plane — complete with stubby wings, a handful of propellers and a tail — that flies perilously close to the ground.
The plane-train rides within a concrete channel. And because it has to deal with pitch, roll and yaw as well as the throttle, the research team, led by Tohoku University assistant professor Yusuke Sugahara, built a prototype that autonomously stabilizes its three axes.
So far, the team has a scale model that wobbles down a runway. Once the researchers perfect the idea, they plan to build a larger, manned prototype and a concrete channel to see how it does at 200 km/h [124 mph].
(via Levitating Plane-Train Gives Mass Transit a Lift | Autopia | Wired.com)
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