Music anyone

http://www.suasnews.com/2012/02/12471/double-o-drone-grasp-lab-plays-bond/

Quadrotors designed and built at the University of Pennsylvania perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame. The quadrotors play this “couch guitar” by flying over guitar strings stretched across a couch frame; plucking the strings with a stiff wire attached to the base of the quadrotor. A special microphone attached to the frame records the notes made by the “couch guitar”.

These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous, meaning humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer programed with instructions to play the instruments.

Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is home to some of the most innovative robotics research on the planet, much of it coming out of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab.

This video premiered at the TED2012 Conference in Long Beach, California on February 29, 2012. Deputy Dean for Education and GRASP lab member Vijay Kumar presented some of this groundbreaking work at the TED2012 conference, an international gathering of people and ideas from technology, entertainment, and design.

@Hooks

Like a lot of things in science there is no why. This is experimenting with possibilities of a platform. Although this seems useless at first I can imagine that this could have applications in impact avoidance, routing optimization (think performing the same piece with less drones by increasing the accuracy + speed). Discovery, like in the development of children I guess, is often driven by play (let it be mind games / thought experiments of real life setups).

So asking why, because it doesn't seem to have any 'direct' real life value, or marketable value is often inappropriate. This is the reason why it is all so easy to justify to cut spending on basic science. However, a lot of people forget that experiments like this lead to products down the line, either directly or by inspiring other people.

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Jaan Kronberg March 1, 2012 at 4:27pm

@MarcS, my questions raised after exactly the same TED talk.. it almost felt guy is talking much more about what *could* potentially be done than what they already have accomplished. like, "decentralized bond music" - sorry, but this is bollocks.. it's very centralized - each quad got very specific assignment and the only decentralized thing they might be doing is self-positioning with regards to other drones and environment and timing ..

though maybe TED is just a wrong place to publish anything about technology and that's why basically we had lots of show without real information
MarcS March 1, 2012 at 3:13pm

Jaan, I was asking myself the same question, especially after seeing the recently posted TED-Talk: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ted-talk-on-u-penn-swarming-qua...

At about 9:45min he talks about "decentralized control" (and also later again about autonomous), which sounds like onboard processing. Would be really interesting to know what information is shared in which direction. Since at least the position is measured externally (Vicon) there has to be some external processing. It would really be great to know that these small quads have the onboard power and intelligent programming/coordination to coordinate their movement based on general instructions and only gps like external information. This would actually mean a great achievement (apart from a great TED show :-). Anybody know papers explaining technology?
Helitrasher March 1, 2012 at 1:33pm

Well who said quads would never be usefull !
Jaan Kronberg March 1, 2012 at 11:55am

These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous, meaning humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer programed with instructions to play the instruments.

this is the confusing part for me.

- do they have "computer" on board, which is receiving (somehow) "general" instructions from main unit?
- each and every quad receives general set of instructions and then figures out (according to it's position, size, other parameters) would be the role of this particular quad, or commands instructions are generated for each quad separately and own quad has it's "goal in life" from the beginning?
S.G. Sutter March 1, 2012 at 7:25am

Nice!

Now let's see them prepare a hot meal. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, doesn't matter.
sergei lupashin March 1, 2012 at 2:41am

More than a year ago:
koen.hufkens March 1, 2012 at 1:14am

@Hooks

Like a lot of things in science there is no why. This is experimenting with possibilities of a platform. Although this seems useless at first I can imagine that this could have applications in impact avoidance, routing optimization (think performing the same piece with less drones by increasing the accuracy + speed). Discovery, like in the development of children I guess, is often driven by play (let it be mind games / thought experiments of real life setups).

So asking why, because it doesn't seem to have any 'direct' real life value, or marketable value is often inappropriate. This is the reason why it is all so easy to justify to cut spending on basic science. However, a lot of people forget that experiments like this lead to products down the line, either directly or by inspiring other people.
MarcS March 1, 2012 at 12:19am

Hmmm, a nice video again.

Now we just need Vicon everywhere and we can do something useful with these systems...
David February 29, 2012 at 9:59pm

That makes me happy
Moderator

Robert Krogh (hooks) February 29, 2012 at 9:40pm

But why?

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