
Quadrocopters juggle balls cooperatively - brianwillis
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/28/quadrocopters-juggle-balls-cooperatively-mesmerize-with-their-l/
======
DanI-S
_Robots are the next revolution, so why isn't anybody acting like it?_

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2380270>

Seems like some people are.

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michael_dorfman
Not to take away from the obvious coolness of it all, but am I the only one
who was disappointed to see that "juggling" here didn't really mean "3 balls
in the air at once"? The headline led me to believe it would resemble a circus
routine...

~~~
bostonpete
Apparently, "juggle balls cooperatively" is German for "play catch".

~~~
magic_haze
volleyball

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aresant
These things feel like the iPad of robots, as in basic hardware that's
massively customizable via software.

Check out their YouTube channel:

<http://www.youtube.com/user/ETHZurichIDSC>

~~~
a1k0n
It's funny that you say that, because you can buy an iPad-controlled quadrotor
on Apple's store right here:

[http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1991ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3NA...](http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1991ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3NA&mco=MjEzMDMyNTY)

~~~
Sukotto
Just wait till they film one controlling an ipad by gently scraping itself
across the screen.... perhaps playing angry birds.

From these videos it looks plausible. The hard part now would be setting up
the camera to see what's happening on the screen when the copter is on top of
it.

~~~
jarek
You're going to need a sausage stylus for the 'copter to activate the
capacitive touchscreen.

Also, the _hard_ part of any such project is the control code.

~~~
kirubakaran
Perhaps it will harvest stylus from the nearest human.

~~~
jarek
Now you have me thinking whether a severed finger would continue to work on a
capacitive screen. A fine way to start the morning!

~~~
kirubakaran
Sausage works. Why won't a finger? It is about conductivity, isn't it? May be
the bots will pickle our fingers for best results.

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listic
These robots seem to be using external sensors (cameras mounted in the room,
not just on the robot's body).

Of course, the achievement of the research group is impressive, but for those
excited about the possibilities to use such robots right now: it's still a
long way till relying just on internal sensors and using such robots in
arbitrary environment.

~~~
JanezStupar
You don't need an arbitrary environment.

I can imagine having them used as killer bee guards for indoor use - even if
they're helpless outdoors. Well to not only think of weapons usage - they
could be used for lots of tasks indoors (painting walls/ceilings for instance
:D).

~~~
pavel_lishin
Catching litter before it hits the floor!

Shooing cats off the table.

Preventing insects that can carry harmful diseases from entering sterile
environments - tropical hospitals could be designed with a long entry hallway
swarming with little bots designed to catch flies and mosquitos.

~~~
oconnore
It might be more cost effective to have the robots install mosquito netting.

~~~
pavel_lishin
It's 2011. I want some _future_ , damnit!

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itcmcgrath
Military use: Personal Grenade "Return To Sender" Protection.

~~~
mbenjaminsmith
Fly a swarm of them around military ships. "Living" armor as missile defense.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Missiles move _very_ fast.

~~~
cameldrv
But they don't change course that fast. They have great velocity, but only
average acceleration. These copters have really good acceleration at low
speeds, so they should be able to get in the way of a missile with a known
target really well.

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Helianthus16
I don't know why my instinct is to anthropomorphize them, but somehow they're
goddamned _cute_. Look! Robots playing ping pong!

A robot dog might be in my future :/

~~~
trafficlight
The last ditch effort they make to grab the ball before it falls feels very
human.

~~~
mryall
Yeah, they need an attachment to pick the ball up and start again. I'm sure
they're just dying to get rid of the slow human component of their game so
they can play faster.

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mhb
Why aren't they using these in Fukushima:

[http://metamodern.com/2011/03/24/fukushima-%E2%80%94-where-a...](http://metamodern.com/2011/03/24/fukushima-%E2%80%94-where-
are-the-
parrots/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Metamodern+%28Metamodern%29)

~~~
Cacti
Uh... that's your first thought, really? You honestly think, out of the
combined force of Japan, the US, the US military, and plenty of brilliant
engineers across the globe, that that HASN'T crossed their mind?

Try radiation hardening electronics + battery life + hardening optics/sensors
+ control range + reliability/safety + size of areas involved = a 1,200lb
flying robot that probably won't work, or only work for a few minutes,
nevermind will probably crash and break open the pressure casing.

...

Godamnit...

~~~
fooandbarify
[EDITED:] Your condescending tone is unhelpful.

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spacemanaki
I guess if it's Engadget it's not blogspam?

<http://www.youtube.com/user/ETHZurichIDSC>

~~~
ugh
It’s never “blogspam” if additional information is provided.

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anactofgod
These young whippersnapper roboticists have it so easy these days, what with
their new fangled flying robots. Back in my day, we were happy if we could get
our robots to walk. In the snow. Up hill. Both ways.

------
trout
It's cool because it's about as good as ping pong as me. Even more if I had to
fly.

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tomlin
I feel like I'm watching what would be R&D for the movie _Batteries Not
Included_ if it were being made now.

All joking aside, I love these things. Logistically, is there any hope of a
solar panel attachment to keep them alive longer?

~~~
ajscherer
I have always wondered if a quadrotor could be set up to harvest wind energy.
I'm imagining it propping itself up against a tree or something and letting
the wind blow it's rotors to recharge. Does anyone know why that won't work?

~~~
sam
These aren't quadrotors, but they're relevant: <http://www.makanipower.com/>

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brianwillis
Here's another video of quadrocopters flying through windows:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7X0_6o9J10>

Fascinating and slightly disturbing at the same time.

~~~
amelim
Fear not, unless you have a Vicon system installed in your house. Most of
these quadcopter demos involved very expensive motion capture systems to
determine the location of the vehicles. Pretty much all of the control
software is on a separate system.

~~~
brianwillis
Call me paranoid, but it probably wont take too many iterations for them to
get the price down, and integrate the control system into the quadrocopter.
Once that happens, we'll have manhacks on the market.

~~~
jjs
> _Once that happens, we'll have manhacks on the market._

Researchers at CERN have discovered an effective defense against those:

<http://imgur.com/qMCeI>

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ck2
So, how long until police/military are using these against people?

Definitely within our lifetimes, but this decade?

By the way, the programming looking like it's REACTING to the ball, not
PREDICTING how it will respond be based on it's behavior.

~~~
prawn
For surveillance above crowds, within a couple of years if not already IMO.

~~~
mikepurvis
They are already: <http://www.aeryon.com/>

~~~
prawn
I've stumbled across reports of "unnatural dragonfly-like" drones above
crowds/protests but it's often hard to tell if those are legit sightings or
imaginative conspiracists.

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kin
I'm salivating for the opportunity to write AI for this. Reminds me of these
drones I saw at GDC: [http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/03/05/gdc-2011-a-r-
drone-f...](http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/03/05/gdc-2011-a-r-drone-flying-
remote-control-plane-demo-video/)

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d2
It's not a pleasant thought, but the military applications for this are many
and will be very lucrative.

~~~
tintin
When it comes to unpleasant thoughts I'm more scared of this robot bird:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo>

When you see a quadcopter hovering you know you are being watched. But with
the bird it's a different story.

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electromagnetic
I'd find it more interesting if you actually managed to get them to compete
against each other. They're not playing pong, quite the opposite.

I'd like to see them paint one red and one blue and make them compete in an
airborne ping-pong match.

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ThomPete
I have a question.

It seems like they perform better when they are two than one.

I.e. when it's only one QC it lost the ball quite quickly.

Is this telling of something or is that just coincidence?

~~~
heyitsnick
Seems intuitive to me. Once the ball bounces, a stationary robot will be able
to react quicker from moving at a stand-still, where-as the robot that did the
bounce has to control it's momentum, which is often going to be going to be
taking it in the wrong direction (upwards) to where it wants to be (lower down
with x/y shifts to anticipate ball arc)

