Autonomous quadcopter drones aren’t all about flying into dangerous areas where humans fear to tread. Besides being disposable, they also make for perfectly precise pint-sized pilots, as this Lexus ad entitled Amazing In Motion demonstrates. When you watch it, keep in mind that not a single quadcopter in the commercial was faked through CGI—they’re all real drones flying in perfect precision.
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It’s becoming painfully aware that those involved in robotics and artificial intelligence research aren’t quite thinking about the consequences of their so-called innovations. Like these researchers at ETH Zurich who’ve taught autonomous drones how to build and weave tensile wire structures. Or, to put it another way, DRONE WEBS OF DOOM.
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Once you realize how boring your neighborhood is from the air, that expensive quadcopter you bought should find a good home in the rafters of your garage. But don’t bury it too deep, you’ll need access to it around Halloween every year because Alton Porter has come up with the perfect use for your forgotten drone: turn it into a flying banshee.
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Dyson has some kick-ass vacuum engineers, but even the most passionate vacuum designer needs a little break now and then. That’s why Dyson’s team took a break to work on something completely different for a change of pace: weird, hacked-together flying (and crashing!) machines.
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Quadcopters offer extreme precision and control in flight, not to mention the ability to take off and land vertically. But compared to the traditional plane design used for most drones, their speed and long range capabilities are limited. So an Arizona-based drone builder called Latitude Engineering hopes to capture the best of both worlds with a quadcopter and drone hybrid that doesn’t need a runway, but can fly long distance missions.
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If you thought things couldn’t possibly get any more ridiculous than the catcopterwoefully gloriously wrong. Now, the same disturbed minds that brought you flying cats have an all-new monster. Enter the OstrichCopter.
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You could probably argue there are worse offenders, but there’s no denying that James Bond’s Thunderball jetpack is definitely up there in the pantheon of ridiculous 00-gadgets. Tinkerer Rodger Cleye recently tried to put a more realistic spin on the concept, and the result is this still-ridiculous-but-fully-functioning quadcopter "belt."
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While I hate using Buzzfeed-style headlines, this video warrants the hyperbole. We’re all familiar with the magic of quadcopters – they can fly in formation, roll around obstacles, and even interact with each other. This video demo, however, takes the cake. These little fellows are flying in formation while balancing a reverse pendulum. They’re essentially doing baton tricks in mid-air.
Created by the folks at ETH Zurich’s Flying Machine Arena this video shows the robotic cooperation not seen since Voltron. The project, by Dario Brescianini, involved a great deal of mathematic modeling.
The project involved assessing the necessary forces and angles required to launch the pendulum off of the little, flying platform and then the attendant moves necessary to grab the pendulum from mid-air. In short, we’re talking about robots that could pass an object over an obstacle without much difficulty.
You can read more about these robots here or you can just marvel at their wild shenanigans.
There are plenty of quadcopters out there that you can buy if you want, but they tend to have one or more of the following downsides: They are expensive. They are fragile. They are difficult to fly. Just one can be a bummer, any pair is twice the drag, and all three just all out sucks. The pair of Arial tricksters Air Hogs rolled out for Toy Fair 2013 soar above those troubles. More »
Who doesn’t want to be the star of their own reality TV show? Well OK, sane people. But if you count yourself among the former, there’s good news for you. A new, tiny quadcopter called the MeCam is just begging to be your ever-present cameraman. And you best take it up on the offer, there’s no way you could find a human that willing. More »
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