The astounding athletic power of quadcopters

YT ^ | 06/11/13 | TEDtalksDirector

[Doogle]

In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D'Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of nifty demos, D'Andrea show drones that play catch, balance and make decisions together -- and watch out for an I-want-this-now demo of Kinect-controlled quads.

[Doogle]

...get your notebooks and sharpen your pencils...*smiles*

[Doogle]

ping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2itwFJCgFQ

[freedumb2003]

I want to research Control Theory and look for cross-applications in the ERP space.

It may not be obvious, but it might be possible. I have cross-applied physics with business before.

[Chode]

very impressive indeed!

[jazusamo]

Thanks for posting. Most interesting but way over my head:)

[Doogle]

....I’m just glad the in studio audience was impressed...*LOL*

[gaijin]

Impressive, but the most impressive thing by far was the presenter’s ability to talk up simple things into sounding FARRRRR more complex than they were.

“We **synthesized** a mathematical algorithm...”

How about, “we MADE”...?

He did stuff like that about 1,000 times —he’s very worried about not impressing people.

[Yardstick]

Very cool. The algorithm development for this kind of thing is more straightforward than you might expect when it’s in an area where people have come before and the math has been worked out. Then it’s mainly an engineering problem. But when you get off the beaten path it quickly becomes a scientific problem that requires lots of imaginitive thinking and problem solving. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when they were thinking their way through the group behavior with the ball and the net.

[aimhigh]

It reminds me of the flying balls used to train the Jedi in Star Wars. Amazing video!!

[muir_redwoods]

It lloks like within five years quads will be intercepting incoming enemy fire on the battle field.

[Ace's Dad]

You have just advance my knowledge of flight, where we learn yaw, pitch and roll. Add acclelration to the forces acting on an aircraft (or submarine) in flight. Very interesting, and a topic for coffee time at the airport tomorrow.

[NCC-1701]

I don’t care about algorithm s or any of the other high brow science involved with this. I want a fleet of those things!

[Rodamala]

It looks like within five years quads will be intercepting incoming enemy fire on the battle field.

Uh... close, but... ummm... not exactly

Quadrotor prototype -Coming to a local Police Department near YOU... (sooner than you think)

[Rodamala]

There was so much WOW in that presentation... I wonder why they didn’t show 2 racket-equipped quads “playing badminton”... probably the need to end the performance... otherwise they’d just keep hitting the ball back and forth until the batteries died.

[TsonicTsunami08]

If this is an example of what this technology is capable of and they’re showing it to you. There are black ops that have far greater implications that are most likely in use right now that we know nothing about.
LITTLE BLACK HELiCOPTERS!
You wanna see helicopters Henry? I’ll show ya helicopters

[Textide]

Check out this Octocopter making a pizza delivery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQJMqyPFb3s

[muir_redwoods]

Sez you

[Vince Ferrer]

There was so much WOW in that presentation... I wonder why they didn’t show 2 racket-equipped quads “playing badminton”... probably the need to end the performance... otherwise they’d just keep hitting the ball back and forth until the batteries died.

Here you go:

Quadrocopter Ball Juggling, ETH Zurich

[Rodamala]

Thanks... I knew that was out there... I mean the demo posted just absolutely pointed in that direction.