Why quadrotors will be storming the skies soon

Tiny, agile flying robots are taking over the skies and making viral waves online. But what implications do these bountiful ‘bots really have for our future?

Next to the Avengers, the most bankable flying objects may be quadrotors (or quadrocopters, take your pick.) These tiny flying objects have become YouTube darlings with video after video of previously unthinkable feats.

Three of them can throw and catch a ball using a net strung between them – with absolute precious. Others have performed the James Bond theme song with their own instruments. Or swarmed the skies over Austria.

What makes these devices so fascinating, and so worthy of all this attention?

Researchers Vijay Kumar and Nathan Michael have one answer. Their paper, Opportunities and Challenges with Autonomous Micro Aerial Vehicles (pdf), gets to the heart of why experimental quadrocoptors are much more than mere YouTube novelties.

Micro-UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) can operate in three-dimensional environments, explore and map multi-story buildings, manipulate and transport objects, and even perform such tasks as assembly. While fixed-base industrial robots were the main focus in the first two decades of robotics, and mobile robots enabled most of the significant advances during the next two decades, it is likely that UAVs, and particularly micro-UAVs will provide a major impetus for the third phase of development.

In other words, the future may belong to these tiny flying robots. Just as the first industrial robots revolutionized the factory floor with their precision, stamina and strength, quadrotors could quite literally apply the same abilities anywhere.

I’m having a hard time remembering another time when advanced science, the hottest toys, and the latest military weapons all revolved (no pun intended) around the same idea.

For $299, you can buy at Brookstone an AR Drone that can fly 165 feet from your controller and take HD video of what it sees. But the real advances are still taking place behind the walls of academia.

Like where Sergei Lupashin spends his waking hours. Sergei is a PhD student who helped develop the so-called Flying Machine Arena (FMA) in ETH Zurich. The padded, net-enclosed aerodrome has been home to many popular quadrotor test runs. Inside, students push the limits of what quadrotors can do.

“We do basic research in control systems,” says Sergei. “This is a somewhat math-heavy, dry type of engineering and science, yet the world literally depends on it to run everything from power plants to your car. All of these are running thanks to numerous control systems of various complexities. Controls are also at the core of the push for efficiency and sustainable living.

“We pick challenging, but simple-to-explain problems like quadrocopter ping-pong to motivate the basic research we do. These examples allow people, even with minimal knowledge of control systems, to readily relate to our research.”

The existence of the FMA, says Sergei, and the popularity of videos like the ones we’ve seen recently, also helps create often-surprising collaborations, like the Flight Machine Enabled Construction project his team did in Orleans.

That project demonstrated how a team of quadrocopters could be used to build a simple structure. You probably remember swarms of copters stacking blocks while a cocktail party ensued nearby.

“We are regularly pushing our flying vehicles to their limits, because this is where a lot of interesting problems lie for us where adaptation and learning can be effective,” says Sergei.

But building isn’t the only use for these tiny eyes in the sky. News reports warn that military drone technology is spreading to other countries and may alter the way wars are fought. Just this week, the Islamic militant group Hezbollah claimed credit for flying an unmanned UAV over Israel. Others warn that drones are about to spread to peacetime uses, and that may be dangerous.

This worries Sergei.

“There’s a lot of focus on military applications of multicopters and UAVs. This is very unfortunate. There are so many amazing things they can enable in civilian life. Small UAVs have the potential to make accessible completely new perspectives for us. I really hope that we find a common sense to integrate them into daily life without a blanket ban on their use for civilian purposes.”

For example, Matternet wants to develop a network of tiny unmanned vehicles in the poorest areas of the planet, so that they can deliver antibiotics to a sick child or other vital needs to the over one billion people who lack access to transportation.

Dedicam offers flying HD cameras that have been used to film sporting events. Sensefly bills its civilian drone as an easy-to-use flying camera.

Here’s the basic sense I’m getting. If you think these flying drones are getting a lot of attention now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Bruce Kasanoff is a speaker, author and innovation strategist who tracks sensor-driven innovation at Sense of the Future. Kasanoff and co-author Michael Hinshaw teamed up to explore more of the opportunities unearthed by disruptive forces in Smart Customers, Stupid Companies.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Scientists Hope to Put Bee Brain in Robot

Flickr/Getty Images

Scientists in the U.K. are working on a buzzworthy project that will scan the brains of bees and then build models of them, creating robots that will act like the real thing.

The goal of the $1.61 million study, called “Green Brain,” is to create a robotic brain that can perform tasks as well as the brain of an animal.

Scientists hope bionic bees could be used for life saving jobs, such as search and rescue missions or detecting the source of a gas leak.

“The development of an artificial brain is one of the greatest challenges in Artificial Intelligence,” said Dr. James Marshall, who is leading the research at the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex. “So far, researchers have typically studied brains such as those of rats, monkeys, and humans, but actually ‘simpler’ organisms such as social insects have surprisingly advanced cognitive abilities.”

The study is being funded by the U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.  Scientists say they hope to have the bionic bee buzzing by 2015.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Disney’s ‘Physical Face Cloning’ produces the ultimate photo-realistic robots

Disney Research found a way to replicate the human face onto a robot for a more realistic robot experience.

It seems, over time, our robots are becoming more and more human-like. They can walk like humans, talk like humans, and perform tasks like humans. The one thing they haven’t really been able to successfully do, though, is look like humans. They are metal and mechanical. Achieving the human look is difficult. There are so many complexities in the human form.

If you think about it, robots probably shouldn’t look like humans. A human-like robot would certainly freak everyone out. If robots looked like us, we would constantly feel like a robopocalypse is on our horizon.

But it would be fun if we kept these human-like robots to a minimum and used them for specific things. And that’s exactly what Disney is planning on doing.

Disney Research in Zurich, Switzerland, just developed a new process of robot making that enables a physical human face to be cloned onto a robot. The process is called “Physical Face Cloning,” and it involves the scanning of a human head. Once the human head is scanned, the coordinates and expressions are recorded onto a 3D program. It uses measurements of skin elasticity and skin thickness to create a realistic mold of the face with silicon.

The robot face looks eerily accurate. Even the wrinkles and fine lines are portrayed on the robot. The robot is also capable of accurately portraying emotions like sadness, happiness, and anger.

Disney is planning on using the robots in its theme parks to add “realism to the interactive characters.” With advances in artificial intelligence, perhaps we’ll be ask the robots questions and see the robot reply with human-like emotions and expressions, like mechanical versions of Siri.

There’s no word yet on when the robots will be released, but this video demonstrates the complicated process involved in making them:

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Here’s your chance to own an animatronic hillbilly band

For only $5,000 you could be the lucky owner of a group of creepy musical robots.

There are certain things in this life that you just can’t put a price on. For instance, love, or the sensation of snuggling a tiny kitten. A musical troupe of robotic hillbillies however is not one of these things. If you’ve got $5,000 and questionable money management skills you too could be the proud owner of an intensely creepy group of mechanical musicians.

An eBay user known by the handle “burnban” recently placed the group on the world’s largest auction site alongside the following, awkwardly-formatted description:

Animatronic Hillbilly band for sale.  Purchased new from Sunshine Motion Company (designed and built by someone who used to work on animatronics at Disney World).  Band featured for a few seasons at petting zoo/amusement park in Massachusetts.  Selling due to changed business model.  Originally purchased for approx. $14,000  Asking $5,000

Hillbilly characters sing and move to soundtrack.  Electrically powered gears and motors – no computers.  Pop in the included CD and press play.  Weather protector (as seen in photo), CD player, accessories, speakers, plugs, etc. all included.

 

Faux porch included if buyer wishes to dismantle and arrange for transport

 

If you’re suddenly struck with an intense urge to blow a wad of cash on this contraption, we’ve got bad news for you: This thing is only being sold to prospective buyers who are able to pick up and transport the band from its current location in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Though one could presumably still acquire the animatronic characters from the other side of the country, it seems the seller is pretty firm on his demand that prospective buyers make all shipping arrangements, so keep that in mind if you’re keen to place a bid.

 

If you’re still not convinced that this is the one thing missing from your otherwise relatively hillbilly-free existence, we direct you to this  collection of YouTube clips of the machines in action. We’ve embedded our favorite below, but trust us when we say that each of them offers a unique glimpse of the bafflingly eerie qualities this hillbilly band brings to the table. 

 

Detached cynicism aside, we can’t really imagine the hypothetical future owners of this thing. We suppose it could provide ironic entertainment at parties, but the sort of people who go in for ironic musical statements like this likely don’t have the discretionary cash to afford it. On the other hand, one could take the Chuck E. Cheese route and create a theme restaurant around these characters with hourly performances from the band, though we’re not convinced that children won’t run screaming at the sight of these musicians belting out their greatest hits.

 

Then again, maybe that’s the goal here. We’re sure someone (possibly a supervillain) is hard at work on a way to terrify our kids en masse, and at only $5,000 this seems like a very cost-effective way to leave a room full of youngsters crying and wetting themselves.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com