New Agile Flying Robots Travel In Fleet
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University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) Lab released a video this week of a swarm of flying robotic devices.
In the video, the airborne robots are seen performing complex moves and navigating spaces with obstacles.
The researchers call the robotic drones “nano-quadrotors” because of their small size and four propeller system.
The team of developers, Alex Kushleyev, Daniel Mellinger, and Vijay Kumar, showcase how the flying nano-quadrotors are able to sync up and fly patterns together.
At one point in the video, the 20 agile drones linked up together and flew a figure-8 pattern successfully without running into one another in the lab.
The swarm of bots can also transition into 3D orientations, such as a pyramid shape, and then shift their positions so they can navigate around obstacles.
A quadrotor can be thrown into the air, and then automatically re-orient itself and hover, which could be useful in working in unstable conditions.
The video shows the GRASP lab researchers were able to make the drones performed flips, as well as double flips while working the quadrotors.
The narrator in the video did not give out technical information, or say whether they plan to develop the flying bots for consumer purchase. However, the researchers wrote on Kmelrobotics.com: “We have received a lot of feedback and questions about our work! We are working on providing more information about our quadrotors and the company.”
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