DailyDirt: Robot Helicopters

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Jan 28th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Flying is a great mode of transportation. Technically, though, there are a few different kinds of flying. Gliding or soaring like a sparrow (African or European, it doesn't matter) is fine, but the capabilities of a helicopter are sometimes much more useful. Hovering and vertical take-offs are really neat tricks. Maybe not as neat as a Firefly "Crazy Ivan" -- but it's a bit unfair to compare fictional flying maneuvers to actual aerial feats. Anyway, here are a few cool robotic helicopters.

Autonomous helicopters from the University of Pennsylvania can work together in teams to build simple structures. It would have been a bit creepier if the video demonstrated a honeycomb structure being built. [url]
Artificial "samaras" are little flying helicopters -- modeled after the single-wing seeds that drop from maple trees. These robotic samaras can climb, hover and move in arbitrary flight paths -- and if there's a updraft, they can stay afloat while expending minimal energy. [url]
Boeing's unmanned A160T Hummingbird can deliver cargo without endangering a helicopter pilot. And Skynet is just about to become self-aware.... [url]

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Filed Under: helicopters, samaras, skynet
Companies: boeing

7 Comments

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:Lobo Santo (profile), 28 Jan 2011 @ 5:09pm

Crazy Ivan...
...is a submarine maneuver IRL.
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Derek (profile), 28 Jan 2011 @ 5:45pm

Sparrows?
The African or European joke should be swallows, not sparrows, IIRC.
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- Michael Ho (profile), 28 Jan 2011 @ 10:51pm
  
  Re: Sparrows?
  Oops. got the bird wrong. my bad. it's been a while since I've watched Monty Python....
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trilobug, 28 Jan 2011 @ 5:48pm

That's pretty cool.
Yeah I saw this on Colbert, I'd like to see just exactly how planners/contractors/architects utilize this tech once it has matured, to the real world level.
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Steven (profile), 28 Jan 2011 @ 8:15pm

It's worth mentioning there are also open source auto pilots for both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Based on the arduino.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2011 @ 9:41pm
  
  Re:
  Very active community here http://diydrones.com/
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2011 @ 2:45pm

For the DIY crowd here are some links:

- The Helipov a RC helicopter that has some display capabilities, why didn't the marketeers think of that?
- The Grab Lab helicopter may have been the prototype for the Army one.
- The Flexicopter is a glove controler for remote control.
- Helivid puts a camera on a homemade build RC helicopter, he was so suscessful that he build a company, this link shows you that.
- n900copter, the power of your cellphone.
- Vicacopter basic UAV.
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