Rotor. Quad Rotor.
February 29, 2012 1:23 PM   Subscribe

 
(previously)
posted by brundlefly at 1:23 PM on February 29, 2012


Aw, that's sort of cute.

quietly reaches for crowbar
posted by jquinby at 1:36 PM on February 29, 2012 [12 favorites]


Pushy Galore.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:41 PM on February 29, 2012 [4 favorites]


quietly reaches for crowbar

Readies shotgun with EMP loads.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 1:50 PM on February 29, 2012


When will you people learn that this sort of silly stunt embarrasses and angers the Quadrotors? They are biding their time people. Biding their time.
posted by The Bellman at 1:57 PM on February 29, 2012 [2 favorites]


I for one welco-

...

In Soviet Russ-

...

I say we nuke the-

...

[sigh]

[Goes outside, strips naked and lies down to make the end as quick and painless as possible]
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:00 PM on February 29, 2012 [6 favorites]


You beat me to making this fpp!

*shakes fist*

Thanks!
posted by rtha at 2:05 PM on February 29, 2012


These quadrotors are showboating.
posted by Nomyte at 2:10 PM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]


Every time I see the quadrotors doing something incredible, and I worry for the survival of our species, I watch this video and then I feel better.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:14 PM on February 29, 2012 [6 favorites]


Mr. Holland's Opus 2: Judgment Day
posted by Kabanos at 2:15 PM on February 29, 2012 [10 favorites]


I watch this video and then I feel better.

Yeah, but those are all errors made by the humans controlling those robots...
posted by Jon_Evil at 2:18 PM on February 29, 2012


Sometimes, it's hard for me to see all these cool things people are doing with quad rotors, considering that I used to be one of those guys (one of many papers on our lab via random google search), but I transferred to a different position two years ago to be closer to my/my wife's families. That job was probably the coolest job I've ever had, and things like this make me miss it. And make me GRAR just a little that all those videos we got through the public release process years ago still haven't been put onto Youtube, and thus, academia gets all the glory.
posted by mysterpigg at 2:24 PM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]


What makes these quadrotors work so well? Is it mainly due to the stable flight platform from the four rotors, plus very accurate dead reckoning with accelerometers?
posted by smackfu at 2:26 PM on February 29, 2012


Jon_Evil: "Yeah, but those are all errors made by the humans controlling those robots..."

Evidently not. Those are bloopers for the "Aggressive Maneuvers for Autonomous Quadrotor Flight" video in the "previously" link.
posted by brundlefly at 2:27 PM on February 29, 2012


What makes these quadrotors work so well?

smackfu, motion capture cameras. Like the kind they used to make Gollum or Beowulf, but fed into the flight control loop in real time as opposed to post processed for cool CGI.
posted by mysterpigg at 2:29 PM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]


They ought to make a band out of this, kind of like the Flying Lizards.
posted by jonp72 at 2:36 PM on February 29, 2012


I was the 13th Robot Quadrotor, but the band left me in an Applied Sciences lab in Hamburg the week before TED. Now I clean air ducts. It's a living.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:52 PM on February 29, 2012 [2 favorites]


What makes these quadrotors work so well?

1. Rage
2. Gaius Baltar
3. Tiny elves.
4. Ron Paul
5. Ellen Degeneres coffee table dance.
6. Metafilter snark.
posted by Fizz at 3:57 PM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]


Oh. My. Freacking. Gawd. That was AWESOME! :D
posted by darkstar at 5:31 PM on February 29, 2012


For anyone else who keeps getting clickjack warnings, here's the YouTube link.
posted by jiawen at 5:39 PM on February 29, 2012


I wanna be a swarm of these when I grow up.
posted by egypturnash at 5:59 PM on February 29, 2012


Oh please oh please we need a Bond film where the enemy is nothing but a swarm of robot quadrotors that would be SO AWESOME especially if little evil faces were sketched up and glued to the front of them.
posted by Salmonberry at 6:11 PM on February 29, 2012


Pushy Galore.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium


I would like to favorite that more.
posted by Smedleyman at 6:17 PM on February 29, 2012


This dystopia is getting weirder and weirder.
posted by cmoj at 6:20 PM on February 29, 2012


This dystopia is getting weirder and weirder.

TED 2013: GRASP presents video demo of quadrotors perform surgery, steal kidney.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:01 PM on February 29, 2012


Well, don't stop now. What do they do with the kidney?!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:03 PM on February 29, 2012


Having seen The Doberman Gang as a youngster, I now confidently predict a heist movie prominently a swarm of quadrotors.
posted by SPrintF at 7:14 PM on February 29, 2012


prominently *featuring* rather.
posted by SPrintF at 7:14 PM on February 29, 2012


One very practical use I can see (beyond the obvious military and police abuses uses) would be equipping larger quadrotors with lightweight digital HD video cameras for the movie industry - locking onto, following and filming a moving vehicle or person from several simultaneous angles while automatically avoiding obstacles such as bridges and utility poles. Much safer, cheaper, faster and way, way more versatile than a helicopter shot.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:30 PM on February 29, 2012


I don't know about automatic obstacle avoidance, but there are RC quadrotor camera platforms (for instance).
posted by brundlefly at 8:52 PM on February 29, 2012


I wanna be a swarm of these when I grow up.

You will, human. You will.
posted by grobstein at 8:54 PM on February 29, 2012


Consolation prize: they had to programmed to do this.

Didn't they?
posted by From Bklyn at 11:24 PM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]


quietly reaches for crowbar

Gravity gun.
posted by Artw at 11:24 PM on February 29, 2012


SPrintF I now confidently predict a heist movie prominently featuring a swarm of quadrotors.

Not quadcopter but Malcolm (trailer) does feature radio controlled cars robbing a bank.
posted by Z303 at 3:16 AM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


smackfu, motion capture cameras. Like the kind they used to make Gollum or Beowulf, but fed into the flight control loop in real time as opposed to post processed for cool CGI.

Interesting. So that really wouldn't work outside or in open environments.
posted by smackfu at 6:56 AM on March 1, 2012


Interesting. So that really wouldn't work outside or in open environments.

Not without some modifications. You'll notice that many of these pre-programmed demos that different groups are doing are indoors for exactly that reason. Not to say these sort of things aren't useful - they allow you to focus on other problems, instead of spending a bunch of time on things like less accurate GPS solutions, windy days, reserving airspace, and general bad weather. Also, the position/attitude from the mocap may be augmented with accelerometers or an IMU, but make no mistake, the mocap is what makes this all possible. I don't know what the state of the art is right now, but a few years ago, real-time 100 Hz millimeter-accurate data on multiple bodies was possible using off-the-shelf mocap, and I don't know that you really need more than that.
posted by mysterpigg at 7:39 AM on March 1, 2012


The pilot episode of The River had a brief shot of a quadrotor being used by the group.
posted by jjwiseman at 12:06 AM on March 3, 2012


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