Thursday, September 15, 2016

Drone Groans




            Techno Chills
                             






What's impressive about this display is not that the quadcopters can do it, but how they can do it. Similar drones have pulled off similar stunts in the past through the use of external sensors and cameras that give the drone a wealth of information as to where it is. It's only with that data that the algorithm controlling the drone can fine tune the craft's movements. That algorithm is often not running on the drone itself either; an external computer is doing all the thinking and the drone is just a very good and quick listener.

In this instance, the drone is flying with its own eyes (a single drone-mounted camera) and its own brain (an on-board Qualcomm processor). That's crucial because it means just about any drone could do this without external help. It wouldn't need cameras mounted on the side of your house to guide it through the window.

The one caveat, as Kumar told IEEE Spectrum, is that the drone does know where the obstacles are before it even starts moving; a drone wouldn't be able to fly like this through a window it only just noticed.

If someone finds the fountain of eternal yoot; for godsake kill him.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Another good argument for screens and autonomous perimeter lasers.

--mech

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