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I went into that video thinking "Big deal; it's a helicopter inside a ball", but the way it moved in the air was actually very impressive -- especially the way
by burke 15y ago
I went into that video thinking "Big deal; it's a helicopter inside a ball", but the way it moved in the air was actually very impressive -- especially the way it responded to being pushed by the demonstrator about a minute in.
- 6ren 15y agoOld ideas put together in a new way (literally: off-the-shelf components). It's convenient how everything - rotor, control surfaces - is tucked away. And it can execute a rolling landing. They say they had a hover/fly plane, but take-off and landings were difficult, and the spherical design was an attempt to solve it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA&t=1m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA&t=1m40s (1:40)). Although... perhaps the impressive aspects come from the R&D in the antecedent aircraft. Hobbyists have long showed-off hovering remote-controlled model planes; the automatic control is what's really impressive, encapsulating that skill.
- polymatter 15y agoI'm not convinced on its supposed use case though. What makes it any better at search than a smaller UAV?
- felipemnoa 15y agoIt can go inside caves, buildings, tight places. Lots of use cases.
- dan85 15y agoIt can serve beer in a crowded pub :)
- tehaaron 15y agoStill seems like a helicopter inside a ball, except with 3 gyroscopes to essentially auto-correct itself.
- arohner 15y agoA helicopter's rotors rotate in two ways that are different from airplanes. 1) the whole rotor can tilt in a specific direction, called Collective. If you want helicopter to move left, the entire rotor assembly tilts left, changing the angle that thrust is generated. 2) The angle of attack (AoA) on the individual blades can change. If the helicopter is hovering, this alters the amount of lift generated. In contrast, a prop driven airplane has propellers that are static. The only control you have over them is the rotation speed. In the video, the ball is using an airplane-style prop, and using airplane-style control surfaces to change direction.
- aaroneous 15y agoActually, many prop planes can control the pitch of their blades as well :)
- tintin 15y agoTrue, but this is all about the 'wings'. An one propeller heli will not fly, it will only spin around. But this thing uses flaps (or wings as you like). That's why this is not just a heli inside a ball.