Read " PREY " for the NEGATIVE possibilities of swarm biotechnology mimicry.
This fairly good read involves mixing this technology with AI and is something to consider if people want to take that step.
We already have the problem with these flyers violating trespassing laws ( and the resultant attempts to recover these " spies " on private property ).
I know that if something shows up on my property, I have a HERF cannon that can take it down. Good luck on getting it back. Finders keepers still apply.
There's a lot more info in here--finally!--from the head of the GRASP Lab Vijay Kumar. Before this was posted last week, there was almost no info on how these little guys work, or even what their capabilities are.
As far as the information goes, the robotic devices communicate with each other. I can't recall whether they use GPS, but suspect at least the base station would use it.
Chuck, I agree, the apparently instantaneous communication is awesome. Jon, thanks for digging up that info from GRASP, which comes from a TED talk given after I filed this story:
http://www.ted.com/talks/vijay_kumar_robots_that_fly_and_cooperate.html There's quite a lot of detail in the TED talk. The swarming technology, such as the protocol created by one of their grad students, is especially interesting, as well as the control algorithms that help the quadrotors create maps and figure out how to navigate obstacles. So is the fact that GRASP is working on different sizes of drones, not just the little quadrotors. I think the transportation, building and post-disaster apps are the most interesting.
Heh heh -- I do love the term "robotic Shriners." Sounds like something from a Futurama episode. It does seem appropriate for that figure-8 demo.
This is very cool stuff. I wonder what technology is used to have each 'copter locate itself in space, with respect to its neighbors. At their size, an inch or two of mislocation could be disastrous.
Though no claim was made for swarm behavior, I saw the video below a couple days before reading this piece, and think the two groups should get together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUeGC-8dyk
I've proposed to friends that these would be great for seeking out and eradicating the Python problem in Florida. Equiped with sensors to search out the Python's and a poison dart they could do quickly what would take us years, if not decades, of dedicated hard work.
I've also considered these for garden patrol, not to kill the offending insects, just to annoy them so they go somewhere else.
If these quadrotors can all lift on the same light-weight carbon fiber beam, they should be able to generate enough net lift to carry objects. I wonder how many it would take to rescue a human from a mid-stream car top. Lithium polymer batteries give amazing power to weight capability.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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