

Quadrotors learning to throw and catch - ChuckMcM
http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/quadrotor-robots-catch/

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ChuckMcM
This is another in a series of experiments at ETH on quadrotor swarms doing
collective behaviors. And in this case throwing and catching a relatively
small ball.

Besides the obvious manhack reference from Half-Life 2, this sort of
cooperative robotics seems like it will help solve problems that single large
robots cannot.

For example, the researchers could use their tool box of behaviors to create a
swarm of robots which create a 'bucket brigade' from a source of water to a
wildfire. If the only limitation on the rate of water drop is number of robots
in the brigade, it becomes a simple economic question rather than a policy
question as to whether or not to implement something like this. Given the
cost/damage of wild fires it seems like a case could be made for a few
thousand gas powered water bucket carrying quadrotors.

~~~
tisme
Gas powered water bucket carrying quadrotors are probably better at setting
fires than putting them out.

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ChuckMcM
What suggests they would be any worse than gas powered water tankers?

My reasoning is that they would respond more rapidly to changes in atmospheric
conditions. They have the advantage as well that if you lose one you don't
lose multiple thousands of gallons of water/retardant capacity.

~~~
tisme
I'm imagining a swarm of these running in to stuff, hot exhausts + gas = the
occasional crash. Suddenly you have a bunch of fires to contend with instead
of just one!

Better use electrically powered ones (though the range may be prohibitive).

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mryan
Anyone interested in interesting applications of quadrotors will probably like
the work of the GRASP lab: <https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/>

