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Stress testing drones in a wind vortex machine

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 11, 2016 at 10:09pm

From Motherboard:

As drones are becoming more commonplace in cities, so are drone accidents. People are crashing their brand new toys and flying them places they shouldn’t be like crazy. Part of this is thanks to the complex wind environments in built-up areas, which can make drones go out of control. In the latest episode of Lab Spaces, Motherboard's Jordan Pearson visits WINDEEE, the world’s first hexagonal wind testing chamber where scientists are pushing drones to their limits in order to learn how to make drones safer in the future.

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Comments

  • Acorn May 14, 2016 at 5:12am
    I didn't hear him say "like" more than two times in the whole video.
  • DG May 13, 2016 at 6:46pm

    They probably received a grant by invoking the "climate change" meme. The extreme weather comment probably helped too.

  • Harry Courter May 13, 2016 at 6:11pm

    HEY MOTHERBOARD...

    What do you say,  Arrange for Rob Lefebvre to fly in that facility and do that video right!

    Still time to redeem yourselves!

  • Chris Jackson May 12, 2016 at 2:59pm

    I had to stop watching after he said "like" 8 times in one sentence. 

  • Gary McCray May 12, 2016 at 12:44pm

    Talk about a puff piece.

    Seems like a great facility and a great idea, only problem is that video was none of the above.

    Pretty much a complete waste of effort.

    I was at least expecting them to show us actual footage of an actual multicopter actually performing in and around the vortical wind shear.

    Why did they even bother?

    I'd like to see one of your helis in their too Rob, maybe contrasted with a Phantom or even a Solo.

  • Rob_Lefebvre May 12, 2016 at 5:24am

    Yeah, total let-down.  It seems like they picked the drone most likely to be affected (huge propeller guards), and still nothing interesting happened. I wasn't expecting much based on the video comments but, even with lowered expectations going in, I was left wondering what the point of that video was.

    Right off the bat, the premise of the video was flawed.  Drones aren't "crashing like crazy" because of wind.  They crash because people don't know how to fly them.  The video with the tree at the beginning, there's no wind.

    It's like the whole story was dreamed up backwards... "So there's this cool facility near me, I'd love to do a video there.  But by itself, it's not that interesting to people.  Oh, I know, let's add DRONES!"


    I'm not too far from that facility, would love to give it a real test. 110 km/h with a helicopter.  Bring it on.  (You know I just had to fit that in there. :)  

  • Harry Courter May 12, 2016 at 4:55am

    A nice presentation about the wind testing facility.  

    I would have liked to see nearly any information on how drones react in the complicated winds of the urban environment, or, perhaps a demonstration of one particular wind condition that causes or <any> reaction from the drone.

This reply was deleted.