Cooperative Grasping and Transport using Quadrotors

[usamuun]

I can't stop picturing a swarm of these grabbing a person and dropping them to their deaths or flying off with them, never to be heard from again.

[OfficialStalkr]

How do they communicate? Do they each communicate with each other? Or is there a "controller"

[shrimants]

How are they managing such aggressive movements? Are they varying the speed of the engine to turn and whatnot or are they tilting the engine?

[bewaretheintertubes]

I get the feeling that, in the future, this is the sound of death.

[apayes]

I would totally hunt people's cats and lap dogs with this

[380zeaiclies]

I want one How Much to buy one?

[sgtGrif]

@380zeaiclies The ones used in this video are about 900 Euro, or $1300 USD...you can get AR drones which are controlled by iOS devices like iphones for about $300 usd

[YTNewbie1030]

AHH, MANHACKS!!!! RUN!!!

[MatsurikaXIII]

This looks like something Aperture would invent.

[callepro]

Hunter, killer

[vidiot6682]

As an owner of a few remote controlled quad rotors my self... (Gaui 330X-S) I am very impressed. Nice White Paper!

On the on the other hand... I am having nightmares about being carried off to the Borg hive one dark & stormy night. ;-)

[groggor]

I'd be curious to see what the purpose of all of this is, seeing as how they are dependent on a motion capture system to track the coptors and other miscellaneous objects in the capture area. These systems don't scale up very well (and get ridiculously expensive), so it is unlikely to be used in a full-scale application. Not being a troll or anything, just wondering what the eventual goal is.

[Maxables]

@groggor Technology accelerates in an exponential trend. Very soon, the technology will be good enough, and cheap enough for practical applications.

[foldr]

Impressive!

What kind of onboard circuitry translates the gains, attitude and thrust commands into actual rotor speeds?

[hizmjst]

Skynet is online!!

[htkendall]

this is the future this is so amazing its scary

[fart1fart1]

the netting is to keep them caged in when they become self aware and try to escape.

[rodstartube]

they sound like a giant wasps nightmare

[HOPPERFZR]

can you make one big enough to be used for carrying people ?

[UnkleWillard]

does anyone know what the purpose of those red lights are around and at the top of the netting?

And like everyone else, i would LOVE to see this pick something larger up, maybe get 20 of these things to pick a person up or just make each individual one larger.

[beforeyouknowit]

@UnkleWillard the red lights are infrared camera modules, used for motion capture and volumetric computer vision.

[abram730]

@beforeyouknowit So like an xbox kinect... except brighter strobe lights?

[meshlife88]

Half-Life 2 reality.

[vekrote]

@meshlife88

I was thinking the same thing :) Just sharpen the blades and you have an effective weapon.

[Ju5tATh0ught]

what's causing the flight instability with the single drone in the beginning

[NicholasDaMally]

@Ju5tATh0ught The motion of the instability is indicative of over-weighting. It sounded like they had all the motors run up to max lift just to get that bit of wood off the ground.

Hopefully they respond back as well. Now I'm curious if my theory is right. :D

[avpruler]

@Ju5tATh0ught same reason you shake when u lift something heavy. too much weight for the drone I believe

[Shnomin]

@Ju5tATh0ught

The shaking is a result of aero-elastic flutter. The ends of the board and under two of the propellers, and there is a bit of compliance in the gripper. The displaced air of the blade feeds energy into the vibration. To call it an instability implies that it is unstable however, and although there was shaking, it was stable. (By the way, I built the gripper)

[neuromorphik]

I can see swarms of these extracting military vehicles from hostile environments

[bulbousmold]

that could eventually serve a purpose for the construction of tall structures. you should try a large jenga like structure

[jukio02]

i want to see them pick up a human

[suharinos]

two questions: is that a Farade cage done with the netting? and which brand are these quadrotors?

[Beausabre]

@suharinos : That's not a faraday cage. From the looks, it's just plain fish net, strung up as a safety measure in case one of the quadrotors "goes off the reservation".

As for brand, I'd say they were University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab brand.

[Beausabre]

@suharinos I take that back:

Google for the X3D-BL-UFO-Komplett-Kit and you'll find it.

[makkaiver]

reminds me about orca carrier from c&c tiberian sun :D

[TheQwaz]

Well you can't ask if their africian or european because their american! ;-)

[tvoice1]

0:39 looks like a giant floating virus

[snikerdoodles856]

next thing you know, they'll be carrying SPAS 12 shotguns

[VGAnxiety]

i have to dislike this .... god i fuckin hated manhacks in HL2 , nowadays if you don't own a crowbar , you're fucked . I was hoping i'll see the HEV suit out on the market before those things.

[samroshan]

Awesome!! Reminds me of the nasty flying blade thingies in Half Life 2 :D

[gallan30]

don't make them too intelligent...

[TheMonsterPatrol]

So this is how coconuts migrate from tropical to temperate zones...

[tubelover64]

@TheMonsterPatrol Niiice reference.

[mystery55100]

@TheMonsterPatrol then how would the air speed velocity of a swallow be relevant?

[bzzzr]

sound like a swarm of bees

[vincentgratton16]

Could this one day be used to make some sort of flying car?

[N64Crazy]

MANHAAAAAAAACKS

[gespilk]

How is this Artificial intelligence?

[itsacorporatething]

@gespilk The quadroper robots are not directly controlled by humans. Each robot is taking in information about the environment and adjusting how it flies all by itself. It knows how to fly well based off of being trained using machine learning, aka AI.

[q1993p]

I am so jealous thats why it sucks!

[lobby417]

Where's Gordon Freeman When You Need Him?

[Landcruiser45]

Unbelievable.

Now thats programming 1st class

[LaZodiac]

First we get the Big Dog Striders,andnow this. WE are the Combine!

[nhvfx]

@LaZodiac Big Dog Striders?

[LaZodiac]

Yha, search for Big Dog. Its really remeniscent of the Striders, or maybe the Strider hunter things, from Half Life 2, just like these guys look like the manhacks from the same game.

[rizz360]

REAL LIFE HALFLIFE MANHACKS SOUNDING LIKE VUVUZELAS

WE ARE ALL DOOMED!

[backwardshoe]

Reload, Doctor Freeman.

[EVILW0LFgirl]

Hm, I wonder what everybody's yelling abou-OHMYGODMANHAAAAACKS

KILLTHEMWITHCROWBAR

[13yovirgin]

Do you guys work in a giant citadel by any chance?

[ilovegmod1]

MANHAXXXXX!

[Bubbadude329]

They're probably already flooding our sewers.

[PDAFreak14]

GORDON!

[frogger626]

Combination Vuvuzelas and Manhacks?

These are the most diabolical things ever.

[BlueChameleon01]

Very, very cool.

*obligatory HAAAAAAACKS! comment*

[Godzillarr]

They are flooding the sewers with manhacks.. SHIT, TOO LATE!

[patq911]

@Godzillarr Noo, not the guy with the pipe :'(

[metaridley1006]

HAAAAAAAACKS!

[Chaosblade777]

@metaridley1006 Oh my God...THE HACKS!!

[TheNewVideos]

cool. Take a 100 or moreof these and build a god damn flying ship, that can carry a person:) if anyone, then you guys could do it:)

[LtMcMuffin87]

Get ready to break out the crowbar....

[thEsPamer106]

@LtMcMuffin87 Oh, and Gordon, i think you dropped THIS back in black mesa.*pulls out a crowbar and drops it to Gordon*

[LtMcMuffin87]

@thEsPamer106 As Gordon "...."

[ziltoid1014]

@LtMcMuffin87 HAHA AWESOME HL2!

[MilosCsrb]

@LtMcMuffin87 manhack :D

[umrebel]

Skynet is now live

[bluepastel]

Now make it lift a human.

[DrDimk0o]

would be coool if u could also tilt the grabbing mechanism.. that could be useful

[warkarma]

awesome, i want few of them :) so i can make a bot fight :D

[xUGKxpwnnubs]

just pick it up you lazy asshole

[Donsknotts]

Very fucking cool. When it picks up the V, I wonder if some glider method would work to it's advantage. Would that be something applicable for the quadrotor?

[0203304122]

I welcome our Quadrotor overlords!

[LanceWinslow4]

Excellent job there, good stuff, very applicable.

[pintobean567]

wow how much money did you guys put in to those lil guys?

[ddg152]

Lol, they sound like Vuvuzelas.

[Mikey9211]

Probably not very efficient, but still awesome! ^_^

[Einstien121]

Can you try to put on a wireless camera so it can be used for security purposes ?

that way it would be really cool .

[ponbass2]

man those things are loud

[Jreyz]

...o.0

i wonder if those can make me fly...

O well i'll stick with Red Bull!

[Magick2323]

Amazing, the gripper and vehicle.

[marinestrong17]

so any chance i could get a few more kills and turn it into an attack helicopter????

[MegaVolks]

I want one on my head!

[Wedler78]

awesome

[personperson666]

Doesn't this just want you to kick a baby in the face?

[cal50m2]

That is so cool.

[goatlip]

what CAD program did you use in the design? SolidWorks? another?

[hobo59]

Isn't it true that three blades is enough, that you can't shave closer with four ?

[wryip350]

Are they scale able so that they can lift like a ton or 2 so it can potentially be used for large scale building projects

[kdwormy]

This shit is bananALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!!!

[ScubaBurger]

Imagine some straps on uniforms of soldiers in battle. If injured, first responder bandages and deploys straps. Out of nowhere comes a fleet of these, grabs the straps, and transports soldier out of fire zone in the most secure way possible (in 3 dimensions) based on sensors awareness of where gunfire is coming.

[ScubaBurger]

Imagine some straps on uniforms of soldiers in battle. If injured, first responder bandages and deploys straps. Out of nowhere comes a fleet of these, grabs the straps, and transports soldier out of fire zone in the most secure way possible (in 3 dimensions) based on sensors awareness of where gunfire is coming.

[edgeplustv]

Utilizas servo motores?

[sr50cent]

do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want do want dowant do want

[massive4r7]

I for one welcome...ahh, you know...

[fiddlesticks122]

they remind me of the little flying things in halflife 2

[MrsVaginaCheese]

sounds like those robot bugs in the matrix. its only a matter of time.

[blummedia]

Pair these with a small radioisotope thermoelectric generator and imagine the possibilities.... or upscaled quadrotors for lifting things the size of shipping containers or felled trees.

[hello112233]

Kinda sounds like vuvuzelas.

[manzha]

when i will make a house i will use them to give the brick to the mason directly from the stack heheheh

[upgrader99]

What kind of battery are you using? Very impressive stuff.

[defect530]

i want your pancake mix!!!

[101111101101]

this is fuckin awesome

[youlosez]

awesome! I want to use these to drop a brick on someone's head :D

[upgrader99]

What sort of battery does this use? I'm very impressed - kudos!!

[animes25]

why are you using so many infrared lamps? you cant use that in real life

[liveinthebozone]

machines 1 - humans 2

there are two years left in this match....

[BobSutan]

Skynet 0.1

[norwoodzomboy]

VERY impressive. Scale this technology up considerably and you could create a S.H.I.E.L.D. Heli-Carrier

[numberThirtyOne]

Fit these things with machine guns and make them into the security drones from Bioshock, IMO.

[2012742]

Is there a vuvuzela in da room

[cannpro]

Wow... I can see these things in every scale.

[Hatchwork]

Almost sounds as annoying as a vuvuzela.

[FunScott]

Great!! But will quadrotors blend?

[Jooiper]

Microsoft upgraded the xbox 360 with a shiny, touch sensitive buttons, built-in wifi, 5 usb ports. Sony’s ps3 console look nice at first but slowly took things out of the ps3 over the years and later released the ps3 slim which is a downgraded version of the fat ps3. So xbox 360 is the way to go with the best online experience, more gamers to play with and best of all Halo Reach which is coming out this Fall.

[SuperJoeAnonymous]

Sounds like a disturbed hive of wasps.

[leo039]

the beginning of skynet ... ill be back

[killershooter27]

@leo039 AHAHHAHAHHA.....XD!

[theemergenceofgreed1]

The Emergence Of Greed/watch?v=CjJE2R4sNUU

[patgargil]

Way better than my Air Hog.

[chew33d]

I admire your team capacity to improve autonomous flight. I wonder about your weight vector calibration! by difference of acceleration/position? It gets hot when plugged on zteadycam/hovercraft addon? would seem like watching an homoerectus zummbing over syntheyes!

[SurreptitiousBean]

Wow. How long before we make them sentient? Skynet is already up, so it's only a matter of time before these things team up with BigDog and Robonaut.

But in all seriousness, this is some amazing stuff.

[phongbong]

The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug. Skynet fights back.

[Papywolf]

Awesome, thats the kind of work i'd like to do.

[SnackPatrol]

I have stocked my basement full of dehydrated vegetables and grains. Thousands of gallons of water line the walls. When, inevitably, these agile, intelligent motorized quadro-copters group en masse and swarm and seize the homes of the innocent, will you be able to tell your children you were prepared for the coming of the robo-apocalypse? The signs are all here my friends. It is up to you to act.

[chaoshellbound]

Great, even closer to the robot apocalypse.

[0n3m1s1s0]

gimmi a job please :D

[grandmission]

Can the gripper hold one of these to the wall? Does it take power on the hold?

[grandmission]

With the gripper, can one of these hold itself to a wall? Does it use power while holding the grip?

[koneye]

I got a crowbar bitch

Love , Gordon

[eoa05]

Very very impressive! Nice work.

[XellossV301]

Sounds Like the Fifa World Cup!

[joshbeech]

Awesome

[derman077]

innovations like this are why I tell people it is a great time to be alive.

[HelderP1337]

By the love of god, if you ever create a company, don't name it Cyberdyne Systems

[EnveeH2]

manhacks

[stubbornVN]

Or all on sides?

[alobosk]

Is it me or 4 quadracopters sound just like many vuvuzelas?

[stubbornVN]

What about if you do one upside down?

[LTF85199]

Thats really cool great work

[trukin]

You should make them to where they automatically go recharge them selves when they are almost out of battery. make them smart, tbut have dont_kill_humans(YET) in there

[bimmersgarage]

Fantastic work team!

I'm curious if you have plans in the near future to scale up this platform?

You've stated you're currently using the Vicon to control spacial positions... Would using an old iphone 3g (less touch screen) be something that can be used to augmented to your copters for GPS positioning?

[ace1800]

this is the single most terrifying video i've seen today. absolutely horrifying. :(

[darksean99]

How many of these would you need to pick up a person?

[Thepiecat]

I see a new generation of pranks.

[Thepiecat]

@TheDmel

Where can I buy one of these?

[dbalieiro]

#amazing!! ... [;)]

[hippydownhippydown]

should be able to transport all my crap in the garden to someone elses garden in no time, very impressive if not amazing, what purpose do you have in mind for this?

[itimiii]

I think I see the next form of tetris game!

[GunnyHawg]

sure could use one of them

[JoelMatton]

I hope someone figures out a way to program a quadroter to fly from the living into the kitchen and get a beer, and fly back. Bonus points if the quadroter opens the beer.

Also, it would be awesome if they built a quadroter big enough to lift a human.

[richlee91]

What is the control mechanism? I see lots of Spektrum radios on the ground,. You guys have to be doing more than that.

[aslambilal]

The vuvuzela button doesnt really help here.

[AnarchyBefallUs]

Absolutely incredible. I'm very excited to see all the possibilities this project holds. Good luck, guys.

[benatpc]

That's fucking incredible. Are these the same dudes that did the Distributed Flight Array last month?

[LewisTheScot]

Man-hacks from Half-Life 2 are coming!

[BergerKing064]

@LewisTheScot  I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THAT. I HATE YOU.

[tsundereblog]

@BergerKing064 Nobody is stopping you from saying it again.

[akidforever92]

it sounds like vuvuzelas, lol

[linkskywalker]

You know what you HAVE to do with these right?

Puppeteering. Attach some strings to the rigid structures and attempt to put on a puppet show manipulated entirely by these wonderous machines.

[Vulcanscienceacademy]

Google 'MikroKopter' for links on how and where to get more info on making these.

[cynics84]

impressvie

[normangbates]

Wow, the platform already looks quite stable.

How much information do the quads get from external sensors?

I saw a few cameras, is this information processed by an external server and processed as data-feed towards the quads?

Do the quads com to each other or do they only communicate to the master controller?

Regards,

NGB

[TheDmel]

@normangbates Position comes from the Vicon system. Yes. Only to master controller.

[normangbates]

@TheDmel

Wow, these vicon cameras cost a fortune.. each..

Great you can do research in such well equipped and excellent funded lab!

Good luck on the project!