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autonomous flying robots!
- Thread starter dodgem
- Start date
Heli = helicopter...
I am not an engineer but a research scientists I'm computer sceneve, artificial intelligence, swarm intelligence and computational biology, but will have stab.
A variable pitch helicopter is more agile than a fixed pitch quad. One could make a variable pitch quad but this entirely misses the point about why quads are so interesting - their mechanical design simplicity and thanks to recent research in high speed PID control their relative ease in achieving stable flight.
A quad power mechanics consists of aprop strapped to a motor. Full stop. No swan plates, earring, tail rotors, differentials, variable pitch rotors.
I cannot think of anything a variable pith heli can do that a quad cannot would be of practical benefit.
The real research ad technology that is lacking s in board sensing.
Vijay's research is great but they mostly cheat and remove the hadest piece of the puzzle from the equation.
I will be presenting my work in ths feld at ICRA this year for anyone iterested
The small rotors are more inefficient but from the research that has been conducted the mechanical simplicity more than makes up for the blade losses.
If pure lifting efficiency is the goal then you want a blimp.
do get me wrong im all for quads but as a hobby i cant see them ever beeing as much fun as a heli.
they are so easy to control and theres not really any skill to them at all just like those 2-3 channel helis toyshops sell that pretty much hover themselfs they get boring after about 20-30minutes.
im sure quads will have many uses for surveilance but other than that...
Interesting, so is everything done due to those camera sensors. Do they actually have anything done onboard, as I was wondering how they know the position of the neighbouring quads. What if cameras were added onto the quads, couldn't depth perception and navigation be done from that?
Exactly, almost, but not quite.
He basically arcs in onto it's back and when he's got enough momentum and height to bounce it back and fourth you can attempt to kick the tail over.
You can switch of the gyros and accelerometers if you want, good luck controlling that, makes a standard heli seem like a fisher price toy.
Quad rotors took much longer to enter such stages of research with autonomous flight than standard helicopters purely because of the control complexity. People were achieving autonomous flight with 200kg helicopters a decade before even simple human controlled stable flight was achieved.
So from a hobby perspective you could add a lot of complexity to a quad if that is what is wanted. But I don't know what people really want out of the hobby and could see why people like standard helis. Heck, the gas powdered ones a really cool, just the smell puts them on a whole new level
you won't ever get a gas powered quad because you need faster control of the rotor speeds.Those sensors a Vicon system, can give sub mm accuracy, at 600hz. Most processing in these videos is done off board. So you have a system with perfect sensing knowledge, unlimited computer power and some very fancy non-linear control theory. CPU power really isn't the limit though, smart phones gave us plenty of CPU cycles.
As I said previously, the real technological and scientific problems are within realtime onboard sensing, especially indoors without GPS. Vision is the widespread approach and good progress is being made but not to do any of the tricks seen in such videos
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Swarm robots arnt really a new thing...
Its still cool though
Its still cool though
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Soldato
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I posted the link to the TED speech in the large thread that's already going.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18369960
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18369960
Ah, didn't find that thread when i searched for "flying robots"... thought that might have brought up a reference 
helis might be more fun to fly, but that's not really what this is all about is it? It's more the things that could be done with tech like this. I mean, entering buildings and mapping out the place is pretty damn cool, as well as being able to search for people etc. The fact that these things can perform manouvers such as flying through a vertical slit opening just makes my jaw drop!
helis might be more fun to fly, but that's not really what this is all about is it? It's more the things that could be done with tech like this. I mean, entering buildings and mapping out the place is pretty damn cool, as well as being able to search for people etc. The fact that these things can perform manouvers such as flying through a vertical slit opening just makes my jaw drop!