Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have an affordable flying camera that follows you around? You know, when you’re trying to film yourself skiing, set up a security system, or get a companion when you actively move around? Well, to such a concept, most would turn to the natural world. And what animal is […]
While it’s true that autonomous flight vehicles have existed for a while, allowing helicopters and the like to fly, avoid obstacles, and land effectively. But this is the first time that a plane has been made so efficiently. Helicopters and other rotor-based aircraft are unique in that they have more control over planes, which mostly […]
Robots, fish, and blimps don’t seem very parallel at all. Yet they come together in a remarkable cool robot: the Electroactive Polymer Robot Blimp. Made by Empa, a Swiss Federal Laboratory that specializes in material sciences, the Robot Blimp is lighter than air, eight feet long, and has actuators that act like muscles to move […]
Stanford University has developed a plane that can land on and take off of walls vertically! Latching on with miniature hooks on “claws,” the unmanned vehicle can approach a vertical surface at about 22 mph, and drastically slows as it nears the wall. Its claws are controlled to extend and release when prompted, and it […]
You may have seen my previous posts about the cool things that universities are doing with the quad-rotor flying platform, but this has to be the coolest things I’ve ever seen a swarm of flying robots pull off. +70
Mankind has dreamed of flight like the birds, with the flapping of wings high in the sky. From Da Vinci’s flying machines to the Wright Brothers’ attempted gliders, it has always been wished to fly in the skies like a bird. And here we are, many years later, with an effective flying seagull! Sure, it […]
Silicon-based MEMS techniques are useful for sub-millimeter applications. While conventional methods exist to produce larger machines measured in centimeters and beyond, the so-called mesoscale devices remain difficult to manufacture. This video shows a versatile and radically simple fabrication process, loosely based on printed circuit board manufacturing techniques, for creating a topologically complex, three-dimensional machine. In this video, the technology is […]
