First off, no, it’s not that song by Grease. Second off, who ever thought greasing lightning was ever a good idea? Apparently NASA did, when they created a 10-foot wide, 62-lb, 10-engine drone, capable of vertical liftoff like a helicopter, and regular flight like an airplane. As they continue to scale up the tests and […]
In this fast-paced technological world, a new drone has been developed! Shocker. This drone, however, is not just a flying machine, but is also a lifesaver…literally. Designed by Dutch student Alec Momont, the ambulance drone carries a defibrillator inside. When 911 is called, the drone is dispatched, and can find the caller using GPS. An […]
So after seeing so many large-scale robots, people would be shocked to find out that the next great leap is creating a super-tiny robot. But the fact remains that making an effective tiny robot is also hard, and has incredible potential. So small insects… flies? This is a nifty robot fly, made by researchers at […]
How do robots without hands, flying in mid air, catch an inverted pendulum (a thin pole) with such precision, and throw it back and forth? With that blunt opening statement, this is Pole-Vaulting Quadrocopters! So what is this thing? Well, it’s a Masters thesis made by Dario Brescianini, a student at ETH Zurich’s Institute for […]
Bats are some of the most dynamic fliers around. Unlike insects, with one joint at the base of the wing, or birds with three wing joints, bats have a stunning twenty-five joints. These joints allow bat wings to change in more precise shapes, making them more maneuverable and controlled. And researchers from Brown University have […]
For most aerial vehicles, it is difficult to maintain energy efficiency when they have to work against gravity. On the other hand, most ground-restricted vehicles do not have the freedom that aerial vehicles do. At the same time, it seems difficult to combine the two. The HyTAQ (Hybrid Terrestrial and Aerial Quadrotor) is unique in […]
The existence of flight robotics is tenuous at best. Its primary problem comes from finding ways to fuel the robot efficiently while still maintaining functionality, which has caused problems in the past. But this newest creation by CyPhy Works takes an innovative and yet somehow also strange perspective on this issue. The EASE robot hovercraft […]
