3D Robotics

Synchonized/mated quadcopters


From BotJunkie:

"Quadrotors are getting smarter and more talented, but besides surveillance, their usefulness is a bit limited due to their size. Where one little helicopter fails, however, an assemblage of little helicopters might be able to succeed. The Distributed Flight Array is a project from the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich that aims to combine a bunch of different little autonomous helicopters into a big glob of autonomous helicopters. Each helicopter unit has its own motor, computer, and sensors, and can wirelessly communicate with all the other units. In addition to flying, they also have little motorized wheels underneath to let them crawl around the ground.

There are all kinds of ways in which a distributed flight array could be useful. One of the most obvious is heavy lifting… Got something heavy? Call in a bunch of robots to combine and lift it. Got something heavier? Call in a bunch more. If one robot breaks, it’s not a big deal, since you can just swap in another one. The robots are even able to adapt on the fly to keep the entire array stable, so adding and removing individual robots is relatively straightforward. Still, getting the robots to reliably dock with each other in mid air is probably easier said than done… We’ll definite be looking forward to seeing some video of that in action."


[ DFA ]

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Comments

  • Admin
    May be by 2020 ;) then
  • I was thinking more like scifi movie cameras... 1 cu in flying thingy that falls like a piece of styrofoam when it dies. More like flies than birds :))
  • Admin
    Not in the place where you don't have to use hard hat( atleast not for now). Any thing that can fall at the speed of gravity on top of your head dictates usage of Hardhat IMHO.
  • Do you guys think that airborne camera drones will replace camera cranes in theaters and cctv cameras in public places?
  • Moderator
    How cool
  • Admin
    This is getting better and better. :)) , I wonder what we get to witness in next 10 years!!!
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