8 ms·
Quadrocopters juggle balls cooperatively
- brianwillis 16y agoHere's another video of quadrocopters flying through windows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7X0_6o9J10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7X0_6o9J10 Fascinating and slightly disturbing at the same time.
- amelim 16y agoFear not, unless you have a Vicon system installed in your house. Most of these quadcopter demos involved very expensive motion capture systems to determine the location of the vehicles. Pretty much all of the control software is on a separate system.
- brianwillis 16y agoCall me paranoid, but it probably wont take too many iterations for them to get the price down, and integrate the control system into the quadrocopter. Once that happens, we'll have manhacks on the market.
- jjs 16y ago> Once that happens, we'll have manhacks on the market. Researchers at CERN have discovered an effective defense against those: http://imgur.com/qMCeI http://imgur.com/qMCeI
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoTen years from now, you'll be buying them as toys at Wal*Mart
- famousactress 16y agoAh. Thanks. I was curious about the level of autonomy deployed to each of the actual devices. It'd be interesting to get more details on this particular demo.
- tseabrooks 16y agoIt seems it relies on 3d information about it's surroundings... Perhaps there is a future project here to try and strip out / slim down the kinect internals to use with these copters and then off load the control system right onto the copter since it won't (maybe) need any more external data.
- DanI-S 16y agoRobots are the next revolution, so why isn't anybody acting like it? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2380270 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2380270 Seems like some people are.
- Helianthus16 16y agoI don't know why my instinct is to anthropomorphize them, but somehow they're goddamned _cute_. Look! Robots playing ping pong! A robot dog might be in my future :/
- trafficlight 16y agoThe last ditch effort they make to grab the ball before it falls feels very human.
- mryall 16y agoYeah, they need an attachment to pick the ball up and start again. I'm sure they're just dying to get rid of the slow human component of their game so they can play faster.
- simonw 16y agoYou think they're cute? I think they're incredibly sinister. Maybe you haven't played Half Life 2?
- jxcole 16y agoNo, he played portal.
- simonw 16y agoYou think they're cute? I think they're incredibly sinister. Maybe you haven't played Half Life 2?
- aresant 16y agoThese things feel like the iPad of robots, as in basic hardware that's massively customizable via software. Check out their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ETHZurichIDSC http://www.youtube.com/user/ETHZurichIDSC
- a1k0n 16y agoIt's funny that you say that, because you can buy an iPad-controlled quadrotor on Apple's store right here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1991ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3NA&mco=MjEzMDMyNTY http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1991ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3NA...
- plainOldText 16y agoI think what aresant meant was that these robots represent in the world of robots what the iPad represents in the world of Tablets: basic hardware made great by its software. Or not?
- Sukotto 16y agoJust wait till they film one controlling an ipad by gently scraping itself across the screen.... perhaps playing angry birds. From these videos it looks plausible. The hard part now would be setting up the camera to see what's happening on the screen when the copter is on top of it.
- jarek 16y agoYou're going to need a sausage stylus for the 'copter to activate the capacitive touchscreen. Also, the hard part of any such project is the control code.
- kirubakaran 16y agoPerhaps it will harvest stylus from the nearest human.
- 16y ago
- mhb 16y agoWhy aren't they using these in Fukushima: http://metamodern.com/2011/03/24/fukushima-%E2%80%94-where-are-the-parrots/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Metamodern+%28Metamodern%29 http://metamodern.com/2011/03/24/fukushima-%E2%80%94-where-a...
- frisco 16y agoEM interference from the radiation.
- sp332 16y agoI don't think the radiation has had any effect on radio communications, has it? That just seems really unlikely.
- jarek 16y agoEver wondered why data cables are shielded?
- asharp 16y agoAs far as I can recall, most data cables arn't shielded. Audio cables usually are, however, to stop hum/etc. when travelling over long distances. To be more specific, if you have wire it will act like an antenna. It's usually a fairly poor antenna for most types of EM that you would find, however there are some things, ie. 50hz hum from mains power and its harmonics, that are powerful enough to induce a nontrivial amount of interference for analog applications. Most digital signals either don't care (because the interference is too weak), or don't care (because they are using twisted pairs and the signal cancels out overall) and hence they are usually unsheilded. Nuclear radiation can't, in normal circumstance, induce a signal into a wire.
- wtallis 16y agoEven a leaky reactor won't do much to the RF signal, but it can affect basically every other aspect of the electronics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening
- electromagnetic 16y agoI'd find it more interesting if you actually managed to get them to compete against each other. They're not playing pong, quite the opposite. I'd like to see them paint one red and one blue and make them compete in an airborne ping-pong match.
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- itcmcgrath 16y agoMilitary use: Personal Grenade "Return To Sender" Protection.
- mbenjaminsmith 16y agoFly a swarm of them around military ships. "Living" armor as missile defense.
- jarek 16y agoSend two or three missiles in a row.
- arethuza 16y agoThe Russian P-700 Granit anti-ship missile can operate in a networked swarm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-700_Granit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-700_Granit
- aaronblohowiak 16y agoMissiles move very fast.
- cameldrv 16y agoBut they don't change course that fast. They have great velocity, but only average acceleration. These copters have really good acceleration at low speeds, so they should be able to get in the way of a missile with a known target really well.
- gills 16y agonot really necessary... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-in_weapon_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-in_weapon_system
- chernevik 16y agoUse the quadroptors in depth: first is furthest out to force a missile course change, next several sit behind and flanking first on the likeliest course changes. Integrate these with the CIWS to define "holes" where the gun can expect to find the missile. Or, make a big one, station it up and miles off, and have it launch heat + radar homing counter missiles, timed to intercept incoming with "matching" intercepts rather than "crossing" intercepts.
- d2 16y agoIt's not a pleasant thought, but the military applications for this are many and will be very lucrative.
- tintin 16y agoWhen it comes to unpleasant thoughts I'm more scared of this robot bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo When you see a quadcopter hovering you know you are being watched. But with the bird it's a different story.
- trout 16y agoIt's cool because it's about as good as ping pong as me. Even more if I had to fly.
- kin 16y agoI'm salivating for the opportunity to write AI for this. Reminds me of these drones I saw at GDC: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/03/05/gdc-2011-a-r-drone-flying-remote-control-plane-demo-video/ http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/03/05/gdc-2011-a-r-drone-f...
- anactofgod 16y agoThese young whippersnapper roboticists have it so easy these days, what with their new fangled flying robots. Back in my day, we were happy if we could get our robots to walk. In the snow. Up hill. Both ways.
- michael_dorfman 16y agoNot to take away from the obvious coolness of it all, but am I the only one who was disappointed to see that "juggling" here didn't really mean "3 balls in the air at once"? The headline led me to believe it would resemble a circus routine...
- bostonpete 16y agoApparently, "juggle balls cooperatively" is German for "play catch".
- magic_haze 16y agovolleyball
- nopassrecover 16y agoThe solo version is closer to juggling: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/08/quadrocopters-enter-the-flying-machine-arena-must-bounce-a-ping/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/08/quadrocopters-enter-the-f...
- ThomPete 16y agoI have a question. It seems like they perform better when they are two than one. I.e. when it's only one QC it lost the ball quite quickly. Is this telling of something or is that just coincidence?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- heyitsnick 16y agoSeems intuitive to me. Once the ball bounces, a stationary robot will be able to react quicker from moving at a stand-still, where-as the robot that did the bounce has to control it's momentum, which is often going to be going to be taking it in the wrong direction (upwards) to where it wants to be (lower down with x/y shifts to anticipate ball arc)
- ck2 16y agoSo, how long until police/military are using these against people? Definitely within our lifetimes, but this decade? By the way, the programming looking like it's REACTING to the ball, not PREDICTING how it will respond be based on it's behavior.
- prawn 16y agoFor surveillance above crowds, within a couple of years if not already IMO.
- mikepurvis 16y agoThey are already: http://www.aeryon.com/ http://www.aeryon.com/
- prawn 16y agoI've stumbled across reports of "unnatural dragonfly-like" drones above crowds/protests but it's often hard to tell if those are legit sightings or imaginative conspiracists.
- listic 16y agoThese robots seem to be using external sensors (cameras mounted in the room, not just on the robot's body). Of course, the achievement of the research group is impressive, but for those excited about the possibilities to use such robots right now: it's still a long way till relying just on internal sensors and using such robots in arbitrary environment.
- JanezStupar 16y agoYou don't need an arbitrary environment. I can imagine having them used as killer bee guards for indoor use - even if they're helpless outdoors. Well to not only think of weapons usage - they could be used for lots of tasks indoors (painting walls/ceilings for instance :D).
- pavel_lishin 16y agoCatching litter before it hits the floor! Shooing cats off the table. Preventing insects that can carry harmful diseases from entering sterile environments - tropical hospitals could be designed with a long entry hallway swarming with little bots designed to catch flies and mosquitos.
- oconnore 16y agoIt might be more cost effective to have the robots install mosquito netting.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoIt's 2011. I want some future, damnit!
- JanezStupar 16y agoRegarding mosquitoes - I'd propose that we mount anti mosquito lazers on the copterz.
- bradleyland 16y ago
- spacemanaki 16y agoI guess if it's Engadget it's not blogspam? http://www.youtube.com/user/ETHZurichIDSC http://www.youtube.com/user/ETHZurichIDSC
- ugh 16y agoIt’s never “blogspam” if additional information is provided.
- tomlin 16y agoI feel like I'm watching what would be R&D for the movie Batteries Not Included if it were being made now. All joking aside, I love these things. Logistically, is there any hope of a solar panel attachment to keep them alive longer?
- joelhaasnoot 16y agoPart of the reason this works so well is that it's inside. Outside, where you have good sunlight, you have wind that you have to compensate for.
- listic 16y agoRe: solar panels - nope, they are not powerful enough... only maybe if these things will hibernate in the sun for long stretches of time between short bursts of activity. I'm not sure those things are even electic-powered. From what I have heard from modelling, if you want your flying thing to carry any useful load (like, camera and radio) and last over 10 minutes, it is bound to have combustion engine.
- ajscherer 16y agoI have always wondered if a quadrotor could be set up to harvest wind energy. I'm imagining it propping itself up against a tree or something and letting the wind blow it's rotors to recharge. Does anyone know why that won't work?
- sam 16y agoThese aren't quadrotors, but they're relevant: http://www.makanipower.com/ http://www.makanipower.com/
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoSolar panels large enough to be useful would probably affect the aerodynamics too much. Simpler to add a charging station somewhere and have the robot go there when it's "tired."