This flying ball is invented by Sato Humiyuki and developed by the Japanese TRDI. It is very stable and robust. It has a single propeller and downstream control vanes. Maybe it cannot do advanced aerobatics like a quad but it is very simple and could be better at most applications, especially in urban environment or indoors.
More info at robots.net / robotspodcast.com/news/
Comments
@jab
a bit to big for my garden :)
The real thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh9dhBJY010
A very similar vehicle (if not exactly same), called (mini)Vertigo was developed in SUPAERO, Toulouse by Prof. Jean-Mark Moschetta and his team about 5-6 years ago. They are still using this for research.
@Joel Venable:
This certainly has gyros in it. You wont be able to control it manually. The wobbliness is because of the dynamics of the control. Those control surfaces are not fast enough. ..I think