Hybrid Driving-Flying Robots Could Go Beyond The Flying Car
Hybrid Driving-Flying Robots Could Go Beyond the Flying Car
Whether they're swooping in to deliver packages or spotting victims in disaster zones, swarms of flying robots could have a range of important applications in the future, a new study found. The robots can transition from driving to flying without colliding with each other and could offer benefits beyond the traditional flying-car concepts of sci-fi lore, the study said.
The ability to both fly and walk is common in nature. For instance, many birds, insects and other animals can do both.
Robots with similar versatility could fly over impediments on the ground or drive under overhead obstacles. But currently, robots that are good at one mode of transportation are usually bad at others, study lead author Brandon Araki, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and his colleagues said in their new study.The researchers previously developed a robot named the "flying monkey" that could run and fly, as well as grasp items. However, the researchers had to program the paths the flying monkey would take; in other words, it could not find safe routes by itself.Now, these scientists have developed flying cars that can both fly and drive through a simulated city-like setting that has parking spots, landing pads and no-fly zones. Moreover, these drones can move autonomously without colliding with each other, the researchers said. "Our vehicles can find their own safe paths," Araki told Live Science.The researchers took eight four-rotor "quadcopter" drones and put two small motors with wheels on the bottom of each drone, to make them capable of driving. In simulations, the robots could fly for about 295 feet (90 meters) or drive for 826 feet (252 meters) before their batteries ran out.The roboticists developed algorithms that ensured the robots did not collide with one another. In tests in a miniature town made using everyday materials such as pieces of fabric for roads and cardboard boxes for buildings, all drones successfully navigated from a starting point to an ending point on collision-free paths.Adding the driving apparatus to each drone added weight and so slightly reduced battery life, decreasing the maximum distances the drones could fly by about 14 percent, the researchers said. Still, the scientists noted that driving remained more efficient than flying, offsetting the relatively small loss in efficiency in flying due to the added weight."The most important implication of our research is that vehicles that combine flying and driving have the potential to be both much more efficient and much more useful than vehicles that can only drive or only fly," Araki said.The scientists cautioned that fleets of automated flying taxis are likely not coming anytime soon. "Our current system of drones certainly isn't robust enough to actually carry people right now," Araki said. Still, these experiments with quadcopters help explore "various ideas related to flying cars," he said.The scientists detailed their findings on June 1 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Singapore.
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Started my master’s in international and transnational law and is being a lot of work guys. The readings are absolutely fulfilling and the classes are the kind you want to attend and look forward to throughout the morning. Love the international regimen, so many foreign classmates who have already taught me so much about their countries and cultures. I just wish everyone could have the same opportunity as I, studying in a completely international context just by their doorstep.
If you want to know how I stay inspired to do all of my work, just check out my video on how to keep motivation to a max.
natgeo Video by @tbfrost | Right in front of John F Kennedy’s winter White House in Palm Beach, Florida, a friend took me on a walk and we stumbled upon a researcher who was checking sea turtle nests that had hatched to look for any little ones that hadn’t escaped. We got lucky (so did the little turtles) and the researcher found 2 Baby loggerhead sea turtles , pulled them from the nest and sent them on their way, their first journey being a 40 foot dash to the sea. Several different species of sea turtles lay nests here but beach front properties with giant retaining walls to try and keep the sea at bay and landscaping / house lights left on all night are affecting the nesting success of sea turtles along this highly developed stretch of coastline. Despite how sad it makes me knowing humans are impacting wildlife like this - It is random mornings like these that make life so wonderful and this work worthwhile.
#damanekoh #islamabad #abdulhaseeb #brothers (at Islamabad, Pakistan)
surrounded by old books with withered yellow pages curled around my finger that is my favorite place to be.
‘books’ from it starts like this by shelby leigh (via nothingwithoutwords)
Well come
Welcome to my Tumblr account. This is my first post from Tumblr.
ESIST.Tech/tv/ recommends | Fire in the Sky News - So Cal - Witness “Wings of an Angel” - Pilots saw it from Phoenix, AZ. | https://esist.tech/tv/
Update
9/10/2017
Salut! I have officially been in France for almost two and a half months and things are going great!
I have made many friends and am currently lookin forward to les vacances de Toussaint because French university is hard. I have so much homework all the time and hearing non-stop French is exhausting but I’m getting better (I think).
I booked my ticket to go home for Christmas the other day. I wasn’t going to go home but my mom misses me a lot and she paid for it so I thought “why not?” I am actually more excited to go back than I thought I would be but I also see myself living here in the future.
Let’s hope this trip doesn’t drop my gpa hardcore otherwise this boy won’t be getting into grad school for French linguistics or be graduating with Magna Cum Laude.
Anyway, that’s about it so… bonne journée!
How to learn astrology; read as many books as available to you
Watch people, talk to people, love people, be in awe of people
Watch Disney movies through the eyes of mythology, read fairytales and biographies see everyone as a god and goddess, fall asleep contemplating the cosmos
Listen to people. Understand them. See their solar system come to life. Attend the daily classes the universe has written and follow its lesson plan. See the unity in everyone, worship their spirit and story
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