Flying Drone Swarm Brings Us Closer To Voltron

[John Funk]

Flying Drone Swarm Brings Us Closer To Voltron

These autonomous robot drones that link together of their own accord to fly around may be terrifying, but they also bring us one step closer to combining mecha.


If I've learned anything from watching giant robot TV shows, it's that robots are cooler when they combine into bigger robots. The Constructicons are "eh," but when they merge into Devastator, they kick ass. The Power Rangers tag-team into the Megazord, lots of little robot cats become Voltron, and Simon combines Lagann with Gurren - and absolutely everything else.

So yeah, I'll admit it: There's something really badass about this "Distributed Flight Array." On their own, the robots are able to generate enough lift to barely skitter across the room. But when they dock together and combine forces - all without human direction, mind you - they're able to take off and take flight. Though the above video only shows one standard combination of four, they're apparently able to fly in almost any configuration you can imagine.

This is awesome. This is also slightly terrifying.

The Flight Array is the brainchild of developers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich's can read more about the project here [http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/].

All I'm saying is, when we form Voltron, I have dibs on being the head.

(BoingBoing [http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/08/why-no-i-am-not-one.html])

Permalink

 

[Jaebird]

Beware! Death from Above! Attack of the Flying Styrofoam!!

Now I have this image in my head of Megazords awkwardly grinding into one another as they combine.

 

[Tharwen]

I think we have found the first non-human thing worthy of a twitter account.

 

[Pipotchi]

PREPARE FOR EXTERMINATION!


So close to becoming reality I can taste it

 

[Trivun]

Am I the only one here reminded of the Sentinels from Halo?

For those who haven't read the tie-in books, each Sentinel is actually one of those things in the video. A drone. They can combine to form different units for shields (like the Onyx Shield World), turrets (like the ones you can fight against in the games), builder units, and all sorts. They're how the Forerunners created their vast technological empire. So what we see in the games are just compositions of drones like the ones in the video.

Who knows, maybe one day we humans could build a giant space ring of our very own to go with all the new Gundam designs John's probably imagining up right at this very moment...

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I prefer guntron

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

Well, it's a tad underwhelming... But I guess expecting a nanobot swarm at this stage is probably too much, we don't develop those for another few years =D

 

[ShadowKatt]

Is it just me, or were there no seams on the combined flying model? That's kinda cheating if it's just one mold with four fans.

 

[Earthbound]

I prefer guntron

Beat me to it. Of course, I couldn't remember what comic that came from, so I would have had a bit of trouble finding it...

Yay styrofoam hive mind! If each are individually able to skim across the ground and, in groups of four, take to the skies, imagine what they could do in larger clusters. We'll have contacted alien life in the next decade if they make enough of those.

 

[Jared]

That is pretty nifty! I bet there some great uses for it too! I bet the Military will want eyes on it!

 

[Wicky_42]

That's a pretty sweet tech demo - though I wasn't convinced that the docking modules and the flying set were the same machines, tbh

Oh, and that whirring noise - that noise will be what ushers in the end of mankind...

 

[DTWolfwood]

love the music XD and woooooo O.O

 

[obisean]

I thought that when he first reached for it that he was going to pull one away and show us how it goes back on its own. When I saw that they were physically attached to each other, I was disappointed. Or it could just be that well made that they just appear to be attached.

 

[ultimateownage]

snippity snip

Pretty awesome. Also, happy birthday!

 

[Raithnor]

The flyers remind me of those floating cameras on Babylon 5.

 

[Warachia]

wow, what was that music, humouresque? Haven't heard THAT piece in a long time.

 

[Evilsanta]

So skynet will have the abillity to combine?

Still its really cool.

 

[Megacherv]

-snip-

You...you didn't mention...ZZ Gundam...docking...*cries in a corner*

*ahem*

This is pretty cool. Bring on the mechs!

 

[Aenir]

lol, it got stuck on the ceiling.