Tag Archives: Flying

Robotic Butterfly by Festo

May 20th, 2015 | Robot

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The German company, Festo, has a history of making incredible, biomimetic robots in their laboratories. We have featured kangaroos, dragonflies, and jellyfish in the past. They’ve also made Air-Penguins, Air-Ray, robotic birds, and the Airacuda. The butterfly may seem less ambitious than those efforts, but the butterflies can swarm in the air while avoiding collisions.

Each butterfly weighs a little over an ounce and has a wingspan of 20 inches. They consist of nothing more than a couple of motors, batteries, infrared markers, and soft, elastic wings.

The robots were not developed to sell but represent continued research efforts towards making ultralight, networked robotics systems. I think the company should focus on these creations and move them to market. I want one!

You can read more about the specs here.

-RSB

Drones at Home

March 26th, 2014 | Robot
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With eight arms spanning less than a yard, a German MikroKopter provides a stable camera platform for under $5,000.

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The images above are from a recent lead story in the National Geographic Magazine titled, Unmanned Flight. Now that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have more or less come to a close, there is a lot of discussion underway concerning drones’ role in society. Needless to say, they have been used extensively overseas, but whether they can make a smooth transition to civilian life is unknown.

“The U.S. has deployed more than 11,000 military drones… They carry out a wide variety of missions while saving money and American lives. Within a generation they could replace most manned military aircraft, says John Pike, a defense expert at the think tank GlobalSecurity.org. Pike suspects that the F-35 Lightning II, now under development by Lockheed Martin, might be “the last fighter with an ejector seat, and might get converted into a drone itself.”

I think one exciting use for drone technology would be to provide internet to locations in the world without online access. Other possible civilian applications include weather monitoring, traffic control, and package delivery.

“If the FAA relaxes its rules, says Mark Brown, the civilian market for drones—and especially small, low-cost, tactical drones—could soon dwarf military sales, which in 2011 totaled more than three billion dollars.”

Stay tuned, apparently the FAA is expected to integrate drones into American skies by 2015.

Photographer Joe McNally captured the images you see above. You can find more of his work here.

-RSB

Robotic Insects Make Flight

May 5th, 2013 | Robot

Robotic Insects

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Robotic Insects

For the first time in history, a controlled robotic insect has taken flight.  A team led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard have created RoboBees which can achieve vertical takeoff, hovering, and steering.  The robotic insects are half the size of a paperclip and weigh less than 1/10th of a gram.

This achievement is the culmination of over 10 years of work across many laboratories at Harvard.  A major challenge has been manufacturing parts at a such a small scale.  “We had to develop solutions from scratch, for everything,” explains Robert J. Wood, principal investigator of the RoboBee Project. “We would get one component working, but when we moved onto the next, five new problems would arise. It was a moving target.”

Technical Design

The flight dynamics were inspired by the movement of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap 120 times/sec.

“The tiny robot flaps its wings with piezoelectric actuators—strips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric
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field is applied. Thin hinges of plastic embedded within the carbon fiber body frame serve as joints, and a delicately balanced control system commands the  rotational motions in the flapping-wing robot, with each wing controlled independently in real-time.
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The control system had to be extremely robust due to the small scales in which the robot operates, and it all has to be mounted on board the flying insect. The team went through approximately 20 prototypes in the last 6 months, but thanks to a revolutionary Pop-Up Manufacturing Process, they were able to build reliable prototypes and test them aggressively.

Next Steps

“Now that we’ve got this unique platform, there are dozens of tests that we’re starting to do, including more aggressive control maneuvers and landing,” says Wood.

After that, the team will work to make the robotic insects fly autonomously and wirelessly.  This is involve upgrades to the flight algorithms, power source, and several communication components.
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“This project provides a common motivation for scientists and engineers across the university to build smaller batteries, to design more efficient control systems, and to create stronger, more lightweight materials,” says Wood. “You might not expect all of these people to work together: vision experts, biologists, materials scientists, electrical engineers.
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What do they have in common? Well, they all enjoy solving really hard problems.”

“I want to create something the world has never seen before,” adds co-lead author Kevin Y. Ma. “It’s about the excitement of pushing the limits of what we think we can do, the limits of human ingenuity.”

It will be exciting to see where this technology goes.

For a link to the paper published recently in Science, go here.

-RSB

Photos courtesy of Kevin Ma and Pakpong Chirarattananon

[via Harvard Gazette]

The Festo Robotic Dragonfly

April 19th, 2013 | Robot

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Robotic Dragonfly:

One of the very first posts I ever made on RobotSpaceBrain was about Festo’s robotic flying animals (jelly fish, penguins, birds). Their new toy, called the BioniCopter, is modeled after the complex flight pattern of a Dragonfly.
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 The robot only weighs about 175 g and maneuvers with incredible grace.
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It’s supposedly very easy to control as well, using a complex flapping motion handled by the software and electronics, allowing the pilot to use a simple smartphone app to steer the Robotic Dragonfly around in space.

How It Works:

The machine is run by an ARM microcontroller, which calculates all of the parameters relating to mechanical adjustments based on input from its sensors (accelerometers and such). The microcontroller then translates all that useful input information into control commands for the Servo motors so it can flap its wings appropriately.

Here are a few specifications from the Festo site:

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General Thoughts:

Truly amazing products keep coming out of the German Festo Laboratories.  I am not sure who is buying them, but of course, there are many potential applications for the high-tech flying robots.  I am sure the military is keeping close tabs…
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It would be interesting to see if you could scale this up and make a Giant Robotic Dragonfly…

You can read more at the Festo website.

-RSB

Cave Wingsuit Flying

April 18th, 2013 | Space

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A few weeks ago, I posted about an unbelievable urban wingsuit video from Brazil, but this new feat is even more impressive!  The Italian Norwegian Alexander Polli flies through an extremely narrow opening (maybe 10 to 15 ft wide) called “Batman Cave” at 250 km/h..!  The cave is located in the Roca Foradada Mountains in Montserrat, Spain, and it’s a breathtaking location for such an attempt.

I must say that it’s only a matter of time before someone face-plants in the rock, but I suppose we can all enjoy it until then.
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 What would be the next step in the evolution of this sport?
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Smaller openings? Doing it at night? Blindfolded?  Two people at once? A whole line of people?

Alexander was quoted on the experience saying, “I hope this inspires others not only climb over their mountains, but also to fly right through them.
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-RSB

Rainbow Wakeboarding for Red Bull Illume

April 11th, 2013 | Robot, Space

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Red Bull Illume is an action photography contest that occurs once every three years.  Patrick Rochon recently captured 3 wakeboarders with LED’s attached to their boards to create this incredible light painting effect.  Snap! Orlando came up with the concept and fabricated the boards.  Here’s a quote from the Illume site about the project:

“The shoot… …included many challenges in preparation. It’s hard enough to shoot high-speed action in the dark – add in the tasks of outfitting the boards with the waterproof LCD light systems to staging the cameras, lighting and athletes in proper position to secure the shot, and you have yourself a serious photographic mission.

Some of the most inspired by the project were the athletes themselves.
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“It really is my movements painting this picture and helping this photo come to life!
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” says Errington, the 24-year-old wakeboarder at the top of his game.

For Rochon, the set-up and planning were extensive, but the motivation while shooting was simple: “Focus on the art, the creativity, and the beauty,” said Rochon, mid-shoot. Fortunately for him, he knew he could rely on the riders to offer performances worthy of the occasion. “I’m really impressed by the athletes,” he added. “They are so fluid in the water, and they understand naturally what we are trying to do here.””

These wakeboarding photographs are reminscent of Jacob Sutton’s Snow Surfer and also the Neon Surfing from Bondi Beach.

The Red Bull Illume competition has produced some pretty amazing results over the years.  Here are the Top 10 Winners from the 2010 competition (click photos to enlarge):

Red-Bull-Illume-Close-Up-2010-Nathan-SmithClose-Up 2010: Nathan Smith (AUS)

Red-Bull-Illume-Energy-2010-Stuart-GibsonEnergy: Stuart Gibson (AUS)

Red-Bull-Illume-Experimental-2010-Daniel-Grundexperimental: Daniel Grund (GER)

Red-Bull-Illume-Illumination-2010-Chris-BurkardIllumination: Chris Burkard (USA)

Red-Bull-Illume-Culture-2010-Vincent-PerraudCulture: Vincent Perraud (FRA)

Red-Bull-Illume-New-Creativity-2010-Eric-BergerNew Creativity: Eric Berger (CAN)

Red-Bull-Illume-Playground-2010-Tim-KorbmacherPlayground: Tim Korbmacher (GER)

Red-Bull-Illume-Sequence-2010-Miguel-Lopez-VirgenSequence: Miguel Lopez Virgen (MEX)

Red-Bull-Illume-Spirit-2010-Adam-KokotSpirit: Adam Kokot (POL)

Red Bull Cliffdive Hamburg 2008 Athlet: Jose PavoWings: Marcel Lämmerhirt (AUT)

The Illumination shot from Chris Burkard won the 2010 competition, and I must say that I think it is one of the most beautiful photographs I’ve ever seen.  It features surfer Peter Mendia riding waves off Chile’s West Coast.

Submissions to Red Bull Illume are open until April 30th, 2013. Visit this site to enter.

-RSB

[via Colossal]

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